Hales, Wheeler Voice Support for Minimum Wage Increase
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Both candidates voiced their support for raising the minimum wage, both in the City of Portland and across Oregon. Hales’ Office declined to give a specific figure for the State’s minimum wage while Ted Wheeler called for a minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Last week, Kotek cited figures from the North Star Civic Foundation, a group of Portland business leaders, to explain why she believes the State should raise its minimum wage to $13.50. Other groups have gone further than Kotek, asking for Oregon’s wage floor to be raised to $15 an hour.
Oregon would not be the first state to pass such a measure. Portland’s west coast neighbors Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles have all passed laws that will raise their minimum wage to $15 before 2020. Washington DC has done the same, and New York City passed a law this summer that raised the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15.
Oregon currently has the second-highest minimum wage of any state at $9.25 an hour. Washington, the state with the highest minimum wage, guarantees workers $9.47 an hour.
Hales Wants $15
Sara Hottman, a spokeswoman for the Mayor’s Office, told GoLocal that Hales supports a minimum wage of $15 for the City of Portland.
“The Mayor has said he supports a higher minimum wage, and that is why he raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour for city employees,” Hottman said. “He believes that is what is right not just for public employees, but for workers across the city.”
Hales used minimum wage as a centerpiece of his State of the City speech earlier this year.
“Another passion of mine: Living wages for city workers,” Hales said in the speech. “It’s a passion for a lot of us, including Dan Saltzman: This year we’ll be proposing my budget that all full-time permanent employees and contractors of the city of Portland make $15 per hour. It’s the right thing to do.”
Hottman did clarify, however that while Hales also supports an increase to the State’s minimum wage, he does not have a clear wage in mind.
“He has not identified a state-wide figure for the minimum wage,” Hottman said. “He has offered his approval for an incremental rise in the State’s minimum wage, which would bring it to $12, then $13, then $14 and $15.”
Wheeler Wants More
Wheeler, like his opponent Hales, told GoLocal he believes the minimum wage in the city should be raised. He cited the increasing cost of living and the rate of inflation in calling for the increase.
“The minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation or productivity,” Wheeler said. “It should be increased. While there will be an important debate over the right number, more important will be if local cities like Portland can set our own, higher minimum wage.”
However, in a departure from most groups calling for an increase to wages, Wheeler did not stop at $15 an hour, saying he would like to see wages in Portland climb even higher.
“Let’s not fool ourselves, even $15 an hour is not enough to sustain a family or rent a decent home in Portland,” Wheeler said. “We need to do much more to connect people to the skills and education they need to get jobs that pay $25 or $35 an hour, jobs which are going unfilled today.”
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