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<< Too Brilliant | Main | Bush Signs Late-Term Abortion Ban >> November 05, 2003SF Minimum Wage Win, Plus COLAOne nice bit of news (though not unexpected) was the decisive win for a citywide minimum wage of $8.50 per hour, almost two dollars per hour higher than the California minimum wage of $6.75, and over three dollars more than the federal minimum wage of $5.15. And just about the same level as the federal minimum wage was back in 1968, when it was just about $8.50 per hour in 2003 inflation-adjusted dollars. Inflation, that's the reason the minimum wage has sunk to such a low level, yet while Congressional pay, social security benefits, tax levels, and all sorts of other programs are indexed to inflation, the minimum wage is not. Which is why it's a great thing that San Francisco is also indexing its wage to inflation, so it will increase to keep pace with the rising cost of living. A very few states like Oregon index their minimum wage rates to inflation, but raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation is the key to long term wage justice for lower-wage working folks. Posted by Nathan at November 5, 2003 11:47 AM Related posts:
Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsI think everything should be indexed to inflation: minimum wage, IRA contributions, alternative minimum tax, campaign finance contributions, child tax credits, everything. I think there are only two reasons these things aren't indexed to inflation: 1) to keep them low to keep people down (minimum wage) or 2) so politicians can look like heros when they raise the limit to what it should've been anyway (IRA contributions). Posted by: Luke Francl at November 5, 2003 12:43 PM I think you mean Washington State indexes it to inflation, not Oregon. Nitpicking done now. BTW, looks like the state bought the building industry´s lies and approved I-841. Posted by: cgs at November 5, 2003 03:39 PM No, Oregon also indexes their minimum wage to inflation as well; they are very much in the minority of states on the issue. Posted by: Nathan Newman at November 5, 2003 03:48 PM A good reason not to index things to inflation is that to do so is, itself, inflationary. Automatic COLAs were a significant contributor to the inflation-interest rate death spiral of the 1970s. IIRC they're actually illegal in Germany and some other places in Europe which have a quite beneficient welfare state. This is not to say that cost of living increases aren't warranted from time to time, but that sound policy requires that such increases have both a time lag and a political check built into them. I will be interested to see what happens with the new SF minimum wage. Fast food and movie theaters generally pay under the new SF minimum, their price levels are easily ascertainable, and their employment levels are pretty easy to see as well, so at least a one set of results will become evident quickly. Of course, the SF minimum wage is kind of a political bastard. It's intended as a blatant owner-to-worker wealth transfer (extreme), but it still doesn't get within shouting distance of an actual living wage, which would be at least $11 or $12 an hour. Posted by: Matthew Dundon at November 5, 2003 03:55 PM BANANA REPUBLICANS or universal unions; it’s all or Greetings from San Francisco; soon to become home of Can San Francisco’s tiny (representing 1/4 of 1% of While the Census bureau web site shows the income of the Instead, 20% of American workers now earn less than In today’s Democrats-help-a-little and Banana It is plain that the majority of the San Francisco labor force, It is no coincidence that the best paid workers in the first Match ownership’s current financial and political hegemony [*The Census Bureau uses a lower inflation rate (435% from Denis Drew Posted by: Denis Drew at November 14, 2003 07:56 PM Post a comment
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