Working Regionally to Raise the Minimum Wage

If Not Here, then Where? The Raise the Wage Movement

in Silicon Valley

Gail Nyhan & Dr. Meghan Fraley

The Humanist Community July 19th, 2015

The Raise the Wage Coalition

We are a growing coalition of faith, labor, community and non-profit organizations.

Campus Alliance for Economic Justice (Cafe J) Fools Mission Mountain View Day Workers Center Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice (MVPJ) OUR Walmart Peninsula Peace and Justice Center Peninsula Young Democrats Politically Inspired Action Santa Clara Green Party SEIU-521 Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – Peninsula Branch Working Partnerships USA

Overview: Raising the Minimum Wage in the South Bay and Peninsula ①  Minimum wage data and research ②  Successes so far

③  Current status of campaign across the region ④  Moving forward together: Working regionally, and

acting locally

What if the Minimum Wage had Kept Pace? The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity

-March 2012 Study by Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Reference: The Minimum Wage is Too Damn Low, John Schmitt, Center for Economic and Policy Research http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/min-wage1-2012-03.pdf

In Santa Clara County, what would our minimum wage be if it had kept pace?

Low Wage Workers are Older than You Think

•  The average age is 35 years old

•  88% are at least 20 years old

•  35.5 percent are at least 40 years old

Reference: Economic Policy Institute http://www.epi.org/publication/wage-workers-older-88-percent-workers-benefit/

Source: NELP Analysis of Current Population Survey (2009-2011).

Low-wage employers are large.

Share of workforce that is low-wage, by firm size

Small Businesses on Higher Wages

•  3 out of 5 small business owners support increasing the minimum wage.

•  85% of small business owners already pay all of their employees more than the minimum wage.

•  “It will level the playing field for big corporations vs. the little guy.”

•  –Jay Porter

•  “We hired entry-level people at near minimum wage in the past, and learned this resulted in their personal financial problems impacting the quality of the work they produced,” higher wages led to ““good retention rates, a good product and happier customers.”

•  -Carmen Ortiz Larsen

•  “people with less stress are happier and work more productively… the minimum wage right now is too much of a burden on these workers.”

•  -Scott Nash -U.S. Department of Labor

Source: NELP, Big Business, Corporate Profits, and the Minimum Wage, July 2012

Low-wage employers are profitable.

In 2012, among the 50 largest low-wage employers:

•  92% were profitable in the previous year

•  78% were profitable for the previous 3 years •  63% are earning higher profits now than before

the recession

Low wage work is growing

Employment and a Raise?

After San Jose raised its minimum wage, “the pace of employment gains in the San Jose area beat the improvement in the entire state of California.” [Wall Street Journal, 4/9/14]

•  US Dept of Labor reviewed 64 studies and found no discernable impact on employment

California Minimum Wage to be $10 in January 2016 • Current Minimum

Wage •  Current minimum wage is

$9 an hour •  Will rise to $10 an hour in

January 2016.

•  Senate Bill 3 •  Minimum wage would rise

to $13 per hour in 2017 and rise with inflation

•  Passed the Senate and going to the Assembly

http://media.bizj.us/view/img/5536921/crb-report.pdf

Think Regionally, Act Locally

Why Here, Why Now

• Skyrocketing housing costs, displacement • Loss of diversity • Minimum wage staggeringly lower than living wage

Demand is Rising for Bay Area Wage Increase

Growing Number of Santa Clara County Cities Considering Increase

Cities Working Together Regionally

• Some models in consideration: • Replicating San Jose’s ordinance with a higher wage • Mountain View’s Draft Schedule of $15 by 2018

Why Here? Why Now? Poverty rates near record levels in Bay Area despite hot economy

Despite being a nationwide leader in job growth, the Bay Area suffers from a poverty rate that still hovers near historic highs, with more than 800,000 people in the region living below the poverty line.

City Minimum Wage Ordinances

• US Conference of Mayors’ endorsed higher city minimum wages as key tools for fighting income inequality at the local level

Minimum Wage Increases around the Bay Oakland: $12.25 in January 2015

San Francisco: $12.25; July 2018- $15

Emeryville: $12.25/$14.44; July 2019- $16

MIT Living Wage Calculator: Santa Clara County, 2014

Annual Expenses & Income

î

The hourly rate a full time worker must earn to support their family

Typical Annual Salaries: Santa Clara County

Computer

94,000

Education

52,000

Living Wage for Single Adult

28,000

Food Prep

20,000

Minimum Wage Workers

18,000

Raising the Wage Silicon Valley

Movement toward a Raise around the

region

• Palo Alto • Cupertino • Los Altos • Campbell • Santa Clara • Gilroy

Mountain View &

Sunnyvale

• Modeled after San Jose • Goes to $10.30 in July, and working to adopt schedule to $15 by 2018 by this October

San Jose

• $10.30 and Indexed to CPI with annual increases

How to Reach $15 Regionally by 2018

Mountain View and Sunnyvale followed in San Jose’s successful footsteps

and adopted a matching ordinance with $10.30 wage

indexed to CPI.

Mountain View and Sunnyvale are working to adapt this ordinance to include a schedule of

increases to reach $15 by 2018.

Reaching $15 by 2018

1. Replicate text of San Jose’s Ordinance

2. Adopt Mountain View’s Draft Schedule to $15 regionally

Regional Model

All workers in our community deserve a fair wage

A clear cut ordinance modeled after San Jose assures fair wages for all

San Jose will help enforce the ordinance regionally if crafted similarly

Following their model empowers us to act regionally

Mountain View as Regional Model for $15 by 2018

San Francisco’s Path to $15 by 2018 Full Text of Proposition J

Mountain View’s Draft Schedule Full Text of Mountain View Ordinance

Effective Date Minimum Wage Rate

7/1/15 $10.30

7/1/16 $12.00

7/1/17 $13.50

7/1/18 $15.00

July 1st Each Following Year CPI Increase

Thank you!