Oregon wage to rise to $9.25 in 2015

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Oregon’s minimum wage will increase 15 cents an hour on Jan. 1, giving a modest raise for about 8 percent of Oregon’s workforce.

The increase is from $9.10 to $9.25, second only to Washington state’s $9.32. Like Washington, which will announce its 2015 rate later this year, Oregon links annual increases to the federal Consumer Price Index.

For someone working 30 hours per week and earning the minimum wage, Wednesday’s announcement will mean $234 more annually.

“With this increase in Oregon’s wage floor, more than 140,000 Oregonians will have more money to make ends meet — and more money to spend at local businesses,” says Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian, whose Bureau of Labor and Industries administers Oregon’s wage laws. “That’s good for everyone.”

Oregon voters agreed in 2002 to tie future minimum-wage increases to the Consumer Price Index, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to track prices for a defined “market basket” of goods.

“By increasing family economic security, this rise in the minimum wage will help people afford more nutritious food for their families,” says Patti Whitney-Wise, executive director of the Oregon Task Force on Hunger. “When we help people invest in good nutrition, we help create great communities for us all to live in.”

How Oregon fares

Oregon is one of 11 states that links increases in the minimum wage with the Consumer Price Index.

In those states, Avakian says, 80 percent of workers earning the minimum wage are age 20 or older, contrary to a perception that teenagers are the primary earners.

Andrea Paluso, executive director of Family Forward Oregon, says two-thirds of minimum-wage earners are women.

“The stereotype that minimum wage workers are inexperienced teens wanting pocket change simply isn’t the case,” says Paluso, whose organization advocates for family-supportive public policies. “Truth is, Oregon women and their families depend more and more on what women earn to pay the bills.”

Oregon is one of 21 states with a minimum higher than the federal standard of $7.25 per hour, set in 2009. Nine of those states are in the West.

California has approved an increase to $10, starting in 2016. Connecticut has approved an increase to $10.10, the new minimum President Barack Obama has proposed as the federal standard, starting in 2017.

The U.S. Senate blocked such an increase from going forward on a procedural vote April 30. There may be another attempt at a vote in the Senate, but even if it got through, it is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled House.

Voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota will decide ballot measures Nov. 4 to boost their states’ rates above the federal level.

A higher state wage?

The Oregon Center for Public Policy says Oregon should consider following other states because a $9.25 rate is inadequate to support struggling families.

“Today’s economic reality — rising income inequality and too many working families living in poverty — speaks to the need to go beyond cost-of-living increases,” said Janet Bauer, a policy analyst with the center based in Silverton.

“While Oregon voters were wise in tying annual adjustments to inflation to make sure that our lowest-paid workers don’t fall further behind, we need a minimum-wage increase that makes forward progress.”

Had the federal minimum wage in 1968 — which at the time was higher than Oregon’s wage — kept pace with inflation, Bauer says today’s rate would be $10.95 per hour.

Based on projected federal poverty guidelines for 2015, Bauer says, the minimum wage required for a four-person family to move above the poverty line would be $11.70 per hour for one adult worker.

For a two-parent, two-child household in rural Oregon, Bauer says, the living wage for that family would be $27 per hour, based on the Basic Family Budget Calculator of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The rate would be higher in cities.

“Oregon’s minimum wage is below what it takes for a family with children to meet their basic needs,” Bauer said. “The time is right for Oregon to substantially lift the wage floor to increase families’ economic security.”

pwong@PamplinMedia.com

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