The Medford City Council Thursday voted down a living wage ordinance after listening to more than a dozen people crusading for higher-paying jobs.

"This is a crusade," said Medford attorney and former councilman Bill Mansfield, who helped get a living wage ordinance passed in Ashland last year.

"We’re dealing with a principle — no society can call itself civilized unless it pays its workers a living wage," Mansfield said. "We hope this would be a flagship and lead other employers to do the same."

Councilmen Bill Moore, Jim Key and Skip Knight voted in favor of creating a committee to draft an ordinance requiring a minimum $10.75 in wages and benefits for city employees or contractors. Council members Claudette Moore, Bob Strosser, John Michaels and Sal Esquivel voted against it.

The crusade for living wage is "socialism in its embryonic stage," said Stan Miller, owner of Brunos Pizza in Medford since 1987.

"I’ve been hiring teens, ministering to them and often to their families," Miller said, citing his restaurant’s success at low employee turnover.

"These are people happy to be paid at all, happy to have a job, happy to have someone willing to listen to their problems. Minimum wage is a stepping stone for tomorrow."

Niantic Street resident John Statler defined a living wage as enough income during a 40-hour week to pay for housing, food, clothing, health care, transportation and education.

"We have heard the argument that, ‘My father worked two jobs to put food on the table and send us to school. I don’t see why people don’t just do that,’ " said Statler, the owner of Computer Services Northwest in Medford and a member of the Human Rights Coalition.

"Please ask the father if he enjoyed working two jobs. Ask him if he would have appreciated a living wage. Ask children today about parents working two jobs and if they would like to have their father and mother around the house more."

Councilman Ed Chun asked advocates how the city should pay for the $21,700 it would cost to bring 13 summer employees up to $10.75 in hourly wages and benefits. The rest of the city’s 400 employees make at least that amount.

Oregon Action member Rich Rohde cited several revenue sources — encourage businesses that contract with the city to share profits with workers and find cost savings with lower turnover, higher productivity and less training.

"Employers pay so low that people are forced to seek welfare programs," said Ernest Garb, a Cloudcrest Drive resident. He told the council he was flipping through cable channels when he discovered the meeting in progress and rushed down to the council chambers to speak his mind.

"We as taxpayers are subsidizing low-wage employees and that burns me up," Garb said.

The city of Eugene Monday passed a living wage ordinance despite city estimates that it will cost between $560,000 and $3.5 million annually to implement it, said Brad Hicks, CEO and president of Medford/Jackson County Chamber of Commerce.

"The answer is bringing more family wage jobs to Medford," Hicks said.

"Government setting the price for anything is — and always has been — a recipe for disaster," Hicks said. "It is not a conservative versus liberal argument either. In fact, the Democratic Leadership Council continues to oppose minimum wage increase and living wage ordinances all over the country."

Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail mmartin@mailtribune.com