What: Job Gap Report and Medicaid Expansion Tele-Media Conference

 

When: Wednesday, December 4 at 11 a.m.

 

Where: Call 712-432-1500 and use access code 529122#

 

Jill Reese, Associate Director, Alliance for a Just Society

Jill Hanken, Staff Attorney, Virginia Poverty Law Center

Eunice Haigler, Virginian directly affected by Medicaid in Fredericksburg, Va.

Jill Carson, Virginia Organizing leader from Lee County

Ben Henry, Senior Policy Associate, Alliance for a Just Society

 

Richmond, Va.—On Wednesday, December 4 at 11 a.m., Virginia Organizing will release a report authored by the Alliance for a Just Society detailing the living wage “job gap” in Virginia via tele-media conference. This is the 15^th year the report has been produced.

 

In Virginia, there are approximately seven job seekers for every one job that pays a living wage in a single adult household. That number increases to 16 job seekers for every one living wage job available in a two-child, single parent household.

 

“This report shows what Virginians already know—we need better wages and better social safety net programs in Virginia,” said Virginia Organizing Chairperson Sandra A. Cook. “Medicaid expansion and an increase in the minimum wage can clearly help those working low-wage jobs have more financial security and add more to the economy through being able to afford to spend money in local communities. These things are good for all of us.”

 

Virginia’s failure to expand Medicaid has already cost well-paying jobs in Pennington Gap, Virginia after the Lee Regional Medical Center closed.

 

“One of the casualties of the politicization of Medicaid expansion was a local hospital,” said Lee County resident and Virginia Organizing leader Jill Carson. “People lost their jobs and now community members have to travel farther for medical treatment. The travel costs add even more to health care costs that many low-income workers already cannot afford due to lack of a living wage.”

  

To interview a spokesperson from Virginia Organizing or for questions about the tele-media conference, please contact Amanda Pohl at 804-337-1912 or amanda@virginia-organizing.org.