Ithaca teacher aide honored
for winning living wage campaign

Debbie Minnick

Minnick, who is also President of the Ithaca Paraprofessional Association (IPA) and a member of the NEA Board of Directors, was honored for leading the successful fight in 2002 for a living wage for 220 underpaid paraprofessionals, most of them women.

With support from NEA-New York, other labor unions, parents, students, and the local community, the IPA Living Wage Campaign won a whopping 50 percent wage increase over three years and also increased membership in their bargaining unit to a perfect 100 percent.

In the wake of the Ithaca campaign, Minnick has traveled around the country to speak about the low pay given to education support professionals and how to organize successful living wage campaigns with strong parent and community backing.

Her work has been the inspiration for living wage campaigns by public school employees in Atlanta, Denver, St. Louis County, Mo., Seneca Valley, Pa., Oshkosh, Wis., Montgomery and Birmingham, Ala. and Fayette County, Ky.

Founded in 1979, NCPE is a broad-based coalition dedicated to achieving fair pay for women and people of color. The award is named in honor of Winn Newman, an attorney who achieved ground-breaking success in establishing the legal basis of pay equity and argued many of the most significant pay equity cases, including AFSCME v. State of Washington.