A bill to raise the minimum wage in California from the
current $8 an hour to $9.25 over the next three years and then to require
inflation-adjusted increases every year after passed its first legislative test
Wednesday.
Assembly Bill 10 would increase the state's minimum wage for the first time in
six years. It passed the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on a party-line
vote, with majority Democrats in support.
"This bill goes to the heart of economic security," testified Mitch Seaman of
the California Labor Federation. "For workers, the minimum wage is all that's
keeping you from sinking further down as the economy moves on without you."
Eighteen states have a minimum wage above the federal level of $7.25 an hour,
led by Washington at $9.19 an hour and then Oregon at $8.95. Ten of those states
provide for annual, inflation-adjusted increases.
California's wage ranks fifth-highest in the country and also trails the minimum
required in Vermont and Nevada, although employers in Nevada can pay $1 an hour
less than their state's $8.25 minimum if they provide health insurance benefits
to workers.
The California bill, which now advances to the Assembly floor, would raise the
minimum wage to $8.25 in 2014, $8.75 in 2015 and $9.25 in 2016. Each year after,
it would go up based on the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index.
The bill is opposed by all the state's major employer organizations, including
the California Restaurant Association, Western Growers Association, California
Grocers Association and state chapter of the National Federation of Independent
Businesses.
Another opponent, the California Chamber of Commerce, has placed the bill on its
annual "job killer" list, which includes legislation it most aggressively seeks
to defeat.
Matt Sutton of the restaurant association said an increase in the minimum wage
would benefit only its employees who earn tips, as the added cost would force
operators to hold down wages for hourly employees to absorb the mandated
increases for tipped workers.
"A minimum-wage increase is going to do nothing but harm my business," testified
Joe Thompson, a Sacramento restaurant operator.
Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Salinas, the bill's author, countered that no evidence
shows that higher minimum wages have done economic harm in Oregon or in San
Francisco, which has a citywide minimum of $10.24.
"There's been no adverse impact to jobs," he said.
Alejo said the state's failure to increase its minimum wage for six years has
led communities to begin taking matters into their own hands. In addition to San
Francisco, San Jose implemented a $10 per hour minimum wage last month, and
Sacramento is considering similar action.
Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, said that his parents worked "four to
five jobs a week" to make ends meet and always impressed upon their children the
importance of having a job to avoid becoming a burden on the government.
That philosophy falls apart when a job pays so little that it does not "fulfill
its purpose" of allowing workers to get by without government subsidies or
programs, he said.
Assemblyman Jeff Gorell, R-Camarillo, cast one of the two no votes on
the measure.
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(c)2013 Ventura County Star (Camarillo, Calif.)
Distributed by MCT Information Services
