"A living wage should be the minimum wage, and it should be constantly adjusted to meet the amount of money necessary to support oneself and a family at a decent level. A decent level simply means the wherewithal to pay a modest rent, buy healthy food and appropriate clothing, and have access to transportation to a job. A living wage does not include access to competitive and self-indulgent consumption, but it does mean a wage enabling the dignity to care for oneself and those one loves, to exist above poverty and constant financial anguish, and to have enough free time to practice good citizenship in one’s community, enjoy recreation, nature, and the arts. Who would begrudge a person that?
Who could not see that to offer hard working people a wage that condemns them to poverty in spite of their labor, is to condemn them to wage slavery and cripple the idea of democratic community?"
