A handful of community groups lined up this morning to support Pittsburgh City Councilman Ricky Burgess' efforts to enact a "living wage" for all city employees and companies that contract with the city.

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23, the Black Political Empowerment Project, Pittsburgh United and the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network spoke in support of the bill, which would require the city controller's office to set the wage annually based on cost-of-living factors.

Right now, the living wage would be about $11.50 an hour, Mr. Burgess said. In comparison, the federally set minimum wage is $7.25 an hour

"I don't know how anybody lives on minimum wage in this day and age," B-PEP Chairman Tim Stevens said.

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