Affordable Bedding
Alpha Real Estate
American Speedy Printing
Andrea Bishop
Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, Inc.
Asheville-Buncombe Community Relations Council
Asheville Wine Market
Blue
Blue Ridge X-Ray Company
Bright Star Children’s Theater
Buncombe County Medical Society
Carolina Mornings, Inc.
Center for Participatory Change
Children First of Buncombe County
Circle of Mercy
Communication Mark

Computer Mechanix Inc.
Congregation Beth HaTephila
Craig Associates
Dogwood Alliance
Dotson-Smith Law Office
Farm and Sparrow
Fired Up!
First Congregational United Church of Christ
First Presbyterian Church
Frame to a “T”
Francine Delany New School for Children
Girls on the Run of Western North Carolina
Highland Brewing Company
Jameson Construction
Josh Williams Enterprises
Julie Duriga, CPA
Laurey’s Catering
Literacy Council of Buncombe County
Mike Byer Auto and Truck Repair
Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN)
Mountain BizWorks
Office Environments of Asheville
On Track Financial Education and Counseling
Our Voice
Pisgah Legal Services
Precision International Foreign Car Service
Real Property People’s Realtors
Saint Matthias Episcopal Church
Smith Dray Line and Storage Company
Smokey Mountain Local 507
Teamsters Local 61
Think Green Building
Timeless Mountain Homes
Rags Reborn Eco Chic Boutique
Urban Paradise Gardening
V & V Land Management LLC
West End Bakery
Western North Carolina Green Building Council
Winter Sun Construction LLC

For more information, contact:

Just Economics
P.O. Box 2396
Asheville, NC 28802
828-301-7291

info(a)justeconomicswnc.org

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Become a member of Just Economics–annual membership costs just $10 and makes you part of a growing movement for economic justice in WNC.

Join now online here, or mail your membership contribution to: Just Economics * P.O. Box 2396 * Asheville, NC 28802

Volunteer your time–promote JE’s Living Wage Employer Certification Program, do research, help staff JE events, design campaign materials and artwork, and more.

Organize an event or action in your community or on campus in support of economic justice and a living wage in WNC.

Educate members of your community. Click here for resources and materials.

Join the Living Wage Steering Committee. The LWSC meets every third Monday of the month from 5:30-7:00 pm at the Fortune Building (729 Haywood Road in West Asheville). All are welcome.

Become a Living Wage Certified Employer, or recruit a friend or family member to have their business or organization certified. Click here for an enrollment form.

Sign the new Living Wage Pledge, and invite your friends and family to do the same. Mail your signed pledge cards to us. Click here to download the pledge.

Sign up for our emai list, so you can keep updated on all our upcoming events. Click here to sign up.

In addition to our specific campaigns, JE also works to educate our membership and others in our community on economic issues affecting our lives.

Our members lead workshops for churches and community groups on income inequality, economic trends in our region, and grassroots organizing. We are committed especially to building leadership among those most affected by economic injustice–low-wage workers and low-income people.

Voices for Economic Justice Program

Voices for Economic Justice is our new leadership development program for low-wage workers. Its goals are to:
• develop leadership among low-wage workers in the local movement for economic justice
• bring together low-wage workers across the barriers that often separate us: race, language, gender, and geography
• provide opportunities for middle income people to work in solidarity with low wage workers.

Sign up for Voices today! The first class for the Fall session starts October 2, 2008!
Voices meets Thursday nights for eight weeks
6:00-8:30 pm, October 2 – November 20, 2008
at Pisgah View Apartments in West Asheville

Workshop topics will include:

- What’s the global economy?
- What’s the local economy? Economic alternatives
- What it means to be a leader & how to advocate for yourself
- Organizing and workers’ rights 101
- Racism and discrimination in the workplace
- Family budgeting and job application skills
- Our dream of economic justice and celebration
- Sharing our stories as workers

* Completely free * Spanish-English Interpretation * Free childcare and dinner provided * Transportation available *

To sign up, or for more information contact:
Sarah Osmer at 828-301-7291 or sarahosmer@justeconomicswnc.org

Registration deadline: September 22, 2008

A “living wage” is the amount that an individual must be paid to afford his or her basic necessities, without public or private assistance. For example, the living wage for a single individual living in the Asheville area for 2008 is $11.35/hour.

Over the past two years, JE spearheaded the Asheville- Buncombe Living Wage Campaign, which resulted in the passage of a living wage ordinance by Asheville’s City Council in May 2007.

The ordinance ensures that city employees are paid a living wage, marking a significant first step in the struggle for economic justice in our region. The campaign is working now to win a living wage for a much broader swath of workers in our community.

Just Economics was founded in 2000 by a group of labor and community activists concerned about the growing economic divide in our community. Our goal was to build a grassroots organization that could mobilize working people to shape our region’s economic future, with a focus on wages and working conditions, along with affordable housing, health care, and childcare.

Early in 2006, Just Economics joined a larger group of faith communities and labor / community activists to launch the Asheville-Buncombe Living Wage Campaign. By early 2007, this coalition had gotten a modest living wage ordinance through Asheville City Council.

But we knew that the city ordinance was just a start. To have a substantial impact, we needed to dig in for the long term, develop a stronger organizational base, and take the living wage campaign beyond the city workforce and into the private sector.

In 2007, Just Economics became the organizational home for the Asheville-Buncombe Living Wage Campaign. We raised funds for an office and staff, and–with support from foundations, local organizations, and a growing membership–we are running an expanded living wage campaign and becoming an effective voice for economic justice in our community.

Board of Directors

Tyrone Greenlee – President; Director, Christians for a United Community
Isaac Coleman - Vice President; Asheville Housing Authority
DC Bennett - Interim Treasurer; DC Bennett Associates
Zach Comer - Secretary; InnerChi Massage and Bodywork
Steve Agan - Attorney, Hyler and Lopez
Laura Gordon - President, Western NC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Lina Herrera-Hernandez - Affordable Housing Coalition
Franklin Tate - Director of Service Learning, Warren Wilson College

Staff

Sarah Osmer, Coordinator - Email

Sarah Osmer is the Coordinator. Sarah comes to JE with a long-history of activism and organizing around social and economic justice issues. Most recently, Sarah worked along side the nationally-renowned human rights organization, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).  There, Sarah spearheaded a Farmworker Community Center Project and organized faith community support for the CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food. As a Congressional Hunger Fellow, Sarah worked with the Chicago Interfaith Committee’s Immigrant Worker Rights Center and the Center for Community Change in Washington, DC. Sarah earned a BA in Sociology and Religion from Emory University, with a minor in Community Building and Social Change. As a student, Sarah was involved in a successful living wage campaign at Emory, as well as affordable housing work in south Atlanta. Though new to the area herself, Sarah’s family has lived in the Asheville area for four generations.

Become a member of Just Economics! Our annual membership costs just $10 and makes you part of a growing local movement for economic justice. Currently, we have approximately 100 members from local faith communities, unions, community groups, universities, and businesses.

Click below to donate to Just Economics using PayPal, or send your membership contribution via mail to:

Just Economics
P.O. Box 2396
Asheville, NC 28802

Make an online donation here:

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Click below for links to PDF files.

Just Economics Resources

JE: Who We Are

JE Outreach Flyer

Living Wage Employer Certification Brochure & Enrollment Form

Asheville-Buncombe 2008 Living Wage (brochure insert)

Buncombe County Jobs and Wages Quiz

Justice Tour Poster

Other Resources

2008 Living Income Standard Report (NC Justice Center)

NC Income Inequality Fact Sheet (Economic Policy Institute)

Unions 101 (AFL-CIO)

Links

ACORN’s Living Wage Resource Center

Economic Policy Institute

Interfaith Worker Justice

North Carolina AFL-CIO

North Carolina Employment Security Commission

North Carolina Justice Center

United for a Fair Economy

JE Co-Sponsors Candidates’ Survey! Check out what the candidates say about the living wage issue…

Update October 8, 2008–Just Economics collaborated with Children’s First and other area non-profit organizations to co-sponsor a survey of local political candidates up for election this November.  Candidates for the Board of County Commissioners, Board of Education, and State House and Senate weighed in in issues affecting children and families.  Be sure the check out the candidates’ responses to question 5, which focuses on the living wage issues and economic opportunities for workers in our community.

Our hope as that voters will use the information provided in the survey to make a more informed decision as they cast their vote this coming election.

Click here to see the Candidates’ Survey, or visit Children’s First website for more information.  Thanks to Children’s First for pulling off the survey!

Join VOICES FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE!

Update August 22, 2008–Just Economics is preparing to launch a new leadership development program for low-wage workers and low-income people called Voices for Economic Justice.

Voices is an eight-week popular education, empowerment based workshop series that combines concrete skills training and leadership development with education and analysis around economic issues. Through Voices we hope to connect with workers in the community that will lead us in our joint work for a more just local economy, and also give workers skills and knowledge they can use in their own lives and communities.

For more information, click here. Spread the word, and sign up today, if appropriate.

For those who would like to support Voices, we are looking for groups to prepare dinner for each session, and also monetary donations to cover the cost of materials and childcare.

Please contact Sarah Osmer at 828-301-7291 or sarahosmer(a)justeconomicswnc.org to sign up to help out.

Asheville Citizen-Times article highlights “economic deprivation” of the non-wealthy

Update July 7, 2008–A recent article in the Asheville Citizen-Times, “Economic deprivation of non-wealthy Americans continues” by George Yates, highlights the growing divide between the rich and the rest of us in the U.S. today. Yates’ article, though sobering, serves as an important reminder of the urgent need for living wages and economic fairness, and the necessity of work like ours that seeks to remedy the “economic deprivation” that’s affecting more and more Americans.

Highlights from Yates’ article include:

* The wealthiest 10% of Americans now own 63% of the U.S.’s total family assets, 80% of publicly issued U.S. stock, and they receive 90% of all dividends and capital gains, while the bottom 50% of Americans own about 2% of total family assets and no stock.

* The annual ‘real’ income of American families, compared to what it was eight years ago, has decreased by $1,224.

* 65% of Americans report that they live paycheck to paycheck.

* Following the real estate bubble “burst” in mid-2007, non-wealthy Americans switched to credit cards to obtain necessary cash–Total household debt over the last seven years has about doubled to a record $14 trillion.

Yates perfectly sums up the current state our our economy, and the need for economic justice work like ours, “The massive diversion of income to wealthy Americans during the last 7 years must be reversed to rescue non-wealthy Americans from deeper economic deprivation, and to prevent the United States from moving still closer to a despotism of the rich.”

Click here to see the full article.

Living Wage Certification “picking up steam!”

Update June 24, 2008– Asheville-area employers continue to sign up for Living Wage Certification. Since its launch just three months ago, forty-three businesses and non-profits have been certified, and new applications are submitted almost daily.

Most recently, Highland Brewery, one of Western North Carolina’s favorite beer makers, was certified. Other popular certified employers include–West End Bakery, Laurey’s Catering, and Asheville Wine Market, among many others.

Be sure to look for the “Living Wage Paid Here!” sticker in the store window of the businesses you patronize, and check out our Living Wage Certified Employers page for a full listing of certified employers.

And, if you haven’t seen it already, don’t miss the recent Mountain XPress article on the LW Certification program, “Living wage issue picking up steam.”

The Justice Tour a huge success!

Update April 23, 2008–Thanks to those who came out to support Just Economics and enjoy what was an incredible day of action and concert with Tom Morello and the rest of the Justice Tour gang!

The Justice Tour’s stop in Asheville helped elevate the work of Just Economics.

It also connected us to new folks in our community that care about economic justice and are motivated to make change from the bottom up, the kind of social change Tom Morello talks about in his music.

Almost 400 of you signed the new Living Wage Pledge, and all of the concert proceeds will go to support the work of Just Economics.

Click here for a link to Tom Morello’s blog post about the Asheville stop of the Justice Tour.

Press Releases

Justice Tour Press Release

Living Wage Employer Certification Launch Press Release

News Archives

2008

Struggles for worker justice take on new urgency, intensity (Asheville Citizen-Times 9/1/08)

Living wage issue picking up steam (Mountain X-Press 5/28/08)

Report: NC families struggling (Asheville Citizen-Times 5/10/08)

Report: Poverty negatively affects 20% of NC children (Asheville Citizen-Times 4/22/08)

All the “Rage” for a living wage (Mountain X-Press 4/16/08)

Living wage focus of Just Economics program (Asheville Citizen-Times 3/14/08)

Living wage gets legs (Mountain X-Press 3/6/08)

2007

Living wage badly needed here (Mountain X-Press 8/1/07)

Up from poverty (Mountain X-Press 7/18/07)

Living wage ordinance won’t mean doom, gloom (Asheville Citizen Times 4/30/07)

Living wage plan gets momentum (The Asheville Citizen-Times, 3/18/07)

Asheville City Council preview: March 13 (Mountain X-Press 3/12/07)

2006

Asheville, Buncombe would benefit from living wage (Asheville Citizen-Times, 8/5/06)

Family struggles as momentum builds for living wage campaign (Asheville Citizen-Times, 7/16/06)

Living wage campaign arrives in Asheville (Asheville Global Report, 5/29/06)

Campaign calls for living wage (Asheville Citizen-Times, 5/11/06)

Children in poverty on rise in NC (Asheville Citizen-Times, 4/27/06)

Arguments against minimum wage hike won’t hold water (Asheville Citizen-Times, 4/27/06)

Making ends meet: minimum wage war (Asheville Citizen-Times, 4/24/06)

Living wage seminar sparks desire to act (Asheville Citizen-Times, 3/1/06)

In March 2008, JE launched this program, which identifies and promotes employers in Asheville that pay a Living Wage. The LW Certification Program aims to reward existing Living Wage businesses in our community, to encourage non-living wage compliant employers to increase their workers’ wages, and to connect consumers to socially responsible employers.

Living Wage Certification also helps bolster community dialog and consciousness around the living wage issue, as we have seen on other issues such as organic food and environmental sustainability.

Criteria for Certification

1. Endorse the Living Wage concept.
2. Pay at least the current Asheville/Buncombe Living Wage to all regular full- and part-time employees.
3. A Certified employer may pay a wage that is less than the living wage to part-time employees who are under 18 years old; to employees who are in a probationary period or hired temporarily (limited to 3 months); and to employees and volunteers paid by others.
4. A certified employer may use benefits that are provided to employees, such as health insurance, tips, union membership, pensions, discounts, generous leave policies, etc., as an offset to the wage criteria.
5. An employer may be rejected for certification or have its certification revoked where there are known violations of workers’ rights guaranteed by NC and Federal law.

Benefits of Certification

- “Living Wage Certified” emblem for display at your place of business/office.

- Free publicity through annual advertisements in the Asheville Citizen Times, Mountain Express, or other media outlets.

- Free promotion of your business/organization through the Just Economics member mailing list, printed materials, and website.

- Special profile of your business/organization on the Just Economics website.

- Participation in high-profile press conferences and organizational events aimed at promoting the Living Wage Employer Certification Program and its member businesses/organizations.

- Being part of a growing network of local businesses and organizations dedicated to building a stronger, more sustainable, and just economy and community in Asheville.

How to Get Certified

1. Endorse the living wage concept
2. Pay all workers at least the current Asheville-Buncombe Living Wage
3. Fill out the Enrollment Form

Certification Enrollment Materials

Living Wage Certification Brochure and Enrollment Form

2008 Asheville-Buncombe Living Wage Brochure

Living Wage Certified Employers

Just Economics is building a dynamic movement in Western North Carolina for economic justice and sustainability. Currently, we have three primary areas of work:

Asheville-Buncombe Living Wage Campaign

Living Wage Employer Certification Program

Community Education and Leadership Development

Mission

Just Economics of Western North Carolina (JE) is a grassroots, community organization based in Asheville. We educate, advocate, and organize for equitable economic conditions, increased union representation, and a fair share for all in the prosperity of our region, regardless of race, gender, or citizenship status.

Together, our members are working to shape the economic development of Western North Carolina in a way that benefits everyone and promotes a sustainable future. We aim to have a membership that reflects the diversity of our community, with an intentional focus on leadership from those most affected by the economic injustices we seek to change—low-wage workers.

Just Economics of Western North Carolina (JE) is a grassroots, community organization based in Asheville. We educate, advocate, and organize for equitable economic conditions, increased union representation, and a fair share for all in the prosperity of our region, regardless of race, gender, or citizenship status.

For more information, contact Sarah Osmer at 828-301-7291 or by email.

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