California is raising its minimum wage to $10/hour, though I wish they'd tie it to inflation

[CreekDog]

...so that future increases are automatic.

It won't be $10/hour until 2016 and $10 won't even be worth $10 by then.

But this is a good start, nevertheless. Also, tipped workers are not exempt from the minimum wage in California.

California Legislature approves raising minimum wage to $10 — the highest of any state

By Josh Richman and Mike Rosenberg

SACRAMENTO -- California's lowest-paid workers are in store for a 25 percent raise after lawmakers late Thursday boosted the Golden State's minimum wage to the highest of any state in the country. In the final hours of its 2013 regular session, the Legislature voted to hike the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $9 next July and $10 by January 2016 -- a move Democrats praised as a boon to struggling workers and Republicans lambasted as a "job killer."

Gov. Jerry Brown has already promised to sign the bill, making California a leader in a growing movement
to increase wages for the working poor spurred by protesting fast-food workers across the country.
"The minimum wage has not kept pace with rising costs," Brown said Wednesday. "This legislation is
overdue and will help families that are struggling in this harsh economy."

...

San Jose voters last November approved raising the city's minimum wage to $10, joining San Francisco as one of only a handful of cities nationwide with their own wage floors.
...

Earlier this year, a panel of about three-dozen experts from leading universities around the country was
split when asked by the Initiative on Global Markets whether raising the federal minimum wage to $9 from
its current $7.25 would reduce the number of low-wage jobs available.
In December 2010, a study by UC Berkeley economists concluded that raising the minimum wage does
not cut the number of low-paying jobs. But not everyone agrees.

As California lawmakers moved to raise the state's minimum wage from $8 to $10, here are the states with the highest minimum wages as of now:
Washington: $9.19
Oregon: $8.95
Vermont: $8.60
Connecticut: $8.25
District of Columbia: $8.25
Illinois: $8.25
Nevada: $8.25
California: $8

The national minimum wage is $7.25; four states have minimum wages of less than that, and five states
have no minimum wage.

http://www.mercurynews.com/popular/ci_24083554

[Coyotl]

1. Oregon's is tied to inflation.

[2ndAmForComputers]

2. There are people (using the term loosely here) who believe there should be NO minimum wage.

Whoever believes that is a sociopath.

[Bunnahabhain]

3. I do not believe there should be a minimum wage. Am I a sociopath?

I do not think the ability to pay for life's basic needs should be tied to working and that society should provide a minimum income whether a person works or not.

[2ndAmForComputers]

4. Well, duh, of course not. You propose something STRONGER than minimum wage.

You know who I am talking about. People who'd just love for all employers to collude and pay everybody (who's not in the "club&quot pennies an hour. With no social net whatsoever.

[Starry Messenger]

5. Rats, why is the start date so far from now?

It will need to be $15 by then. I was excited thinking this would help people sooner.

[CreekDog]

6. i agree, the 2016 date took me by surprise.

[gopiscrap]

7. and it should start at 15 not ten

Washington's minimum raise used to be tied to inflation but I think the business fuckers took care of that.