Oregon governor signs landmark tiered minimum wage increase into law
Source: Associated Press
Oregons governor on Wednesday signed trailblazing legislation that will raise the minimum wage to nearly $15 in six years, and do so through a three-tiered system that has not been tried anywhere else in the country.
Im proud to sign into law my top priority of the 2016 Legislative session raising the minimum wage, Governor Kate Brown said in a statement. She said the new law is a path forward so working families can catch up, and businesses have time to plan for the increase.
President Obama said Congress needs to follow Oregons example and raise the federal minimum wage, now at $7.25 an hour.
I commend the Oregon Legislature and Governor Kate Brown for taking action to raise their states minimum wage, Obama said in a statement. The president said 18 states and the District of Columbia have acted since he first called on Congress to increase the federal standard in 2013.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/02/oregon-tiered-minimum-wage-increase-signed-into-law
Associated Press
Wednesday 2 March 2016 22.45 GMT
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)familiarize myself with it.
Jitter65
(3,089 posts)hfojvt
(37,573 posts)Oregon's current minimum is $9.25
the new law only raises it to $14.75 in Portland
it is $13.75 in other cities (defined how? - they never say)
and $12.75 in rural areas
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)It is a start.
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)I do not know what the scale is. Anyway, glad to see something happening. Good job Oregon.
Jenny_92808
(1,342 posts)Still not enough $....or fast enough.
PersonNumber503602
(1,134 posts)minimum wage should and how it should be applied and determined.
Jenny_92808
(1,342 posts)It should be adjusted yearly (cost of living) from there.
PersonNumber503602
(1,134 posts)Also, cost-of-living varies across different parts of the country. If you had control, would the minimum wage be based on local cost-of-living, or would it be the same across the board? I see problems with it being across the board, because the wage for someone to live in NYC would be astronomical compared to someone in a small mid-western town. There is definitely a point in which it would too high of a min wage would hurt the job situation in those low cost-of-living regions. If you just take an average of certain sample points and apply it across the board, then it may not be enough for those who live in cities with ridiculously high cost-of-living.
I'm just curious of others ideas on how that works out, and how they would handle those realities.
I think the only way for it to work is for it to be regionally adjusted like they are doing Oregon. But the problem with that that is that more conservative states will never do it. So we end up needing the federal minimum that we have. But the federal minimum has to account for everyone's needs who live in both high and low cost-of-living areas.
Akamai
(1,779 posts)the economy!
Krugman likes this approach, Jared Bernstein, Reich, and other sane economists like it, and I LOVE it!
Great!
killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)Why don't some people understand that?