As a pastor at a city church here in Albany, I know very well who the minimum wage impacts. I see many people with jobs come in and out of our feeding programs and worship alongside me on Sunday morning.
It's no accident that this press conference is held during Thanksgiving week. Faith communities do thankfulness well – we count our blessings, thank our Creator for what we are given.
Thankfulness means nothing if it does not empower us to go forward to change the way things are.
As Protestant Pastor, I would like to proclaim an end to the old idea of the Protestant Work Ethic. The old idea says that work is good for you no matter how much you get paid. You should be grateful for the opportunity to work and take what's given to you. If for some reason you cannot make a living on what you get paid, it's because you are not working hard enough. You must be lazy.
Instead, let's have New York work ethic that says work has value when people can earn a decent living no matter what their occupation. If we talk about laziness at all, let us call out laziness on the part of those who have too much and ignore the needs of those who have less.
The question is a simple one: who are we? Are we people who see the minimum wage as a pesky problem of lazy people? Or do we see the people who work two or three jobs to make ends meet as our brothers and sisters?