STATE RAISES MINIMUM WAGE HOURLY WORKERS GET $1 HIKE OVER NEXT 2 YEARS, TO $6.75.Byline: Chris Sieroty Staff Writer More than 1 million low-wage workers got the promise of a pay raise Monday when a state commission agreed to raise California's minimum wage to the second highest in the nation by 2002. The five-member Industrial Welfare Commission, which has the authority to raise the minimum wage without the approval of the state Legislature A state legislature may refer to a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. The following legislatures exist in the following political subdivisions: The second 50-cent raise would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2002. A full- time, minimum-wage employee in California earns $11,900 a year; by 2002 that same worker will make about $14,000 before taxes. California last raised the state's minimum wage in March 1998. Workers like Aaron Desouza, 23, an auto body worker from Granada Hills, applauded the increase: ``Raising the minimum wage is going to make it easier for me to make ends meet each month,'' he said. But employers were skeptical. ``For each 50-cent increase it's another $60,000 in income that is not in my pocket,'' said Hardeep Chahal, 32, manager of Woodland Hills Car Wash Inc. ``My prices will go up, which is bad for me and for my customers. It will probably lead to one or two layoffs.'' Gov. Gray Davis, D-Calif., applauded the commission's decision. ``In a time of unprecedented prosperity in California, this modest increase in the minimum wage will help all California workers share the bounty bounty, payment made by a government bounty, amount paid by a government for the achievement of certain economic or other goals. It often takes the form of a premium paid for the increased production or export of certain goods. of our thriving thrive intr.v. thrived or throve , thrived or thriv·en , thriv·ing, thrives 1. To make steady progress; prosper. 2. economy,'' Davis said. ``The lowest-paid working Californians have helped produce the prosperity. It is only fair they share it.'' Labor organizations and those who support the commission's decision say a dual-income couple can't earn enough money on minimum wage to escape living in poverty. Business organizations say an increase in the minimum wage would make it difficult for them to compete with companies in other states, who can pay their employees less. ``For a full-time, low-wage worker a dollar increase in the minimum wage represents about a 17-percent increase, or $2,080 per year,'' said Jean Ross, executive director of the nonprofit A corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive. Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law. California Budget Project, a liberal research group. Ross said it takes around $40,000 a year to support a family, which even with the latest increase is nowhere near that. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the California Budget Project, the increase would affect 1 million workers who earn minimum wage and 2 million workers who currently make less than $6.75. ``If you look over the long-term, the purchasing power Purchasing Power 1. The value of a currency expressed in terms of the amount of goods or services that one unit of money can buy. Purchasing power is important because, all else being equal, inflation decreases the amount of goods or services you'd be able to purchase. 2. of minimum-wage workers is about one-third lower than it was in 1968,'' Ross said. ``This increase will make up some of the purchasing power that has been lost.'' Washington state and Oregon currently have the nation's highest minimum wage, $6.50 an hour. In 2002, only Washington's would be higher than California's because it is indexed to keep up with inflation and is expected to be slightly above $6.75 then, Ross said. The increase is a disappointment to business groups that had asked commissioners to wait until the federal government considered an increase in the federal minimum wage, which now stands at $5.15 an hour. ``Once again politics is trumping trump 1 n. 1. Games a. A suit in card games that outranks all other suits for the duration of a hand. Often used in the plural. b. A card of such a suit. c. A trump card. 2. common sense,'' said John Doyle John Doyle may refer to:
``The presumption A conclusion made as to the existence or nonexistence of a fact that must be drawn from other evidence that is admitted and proven to be true. A Rule of Law. If certain facts are established, a judge or jury must assume another fact that the law recognizes as a logical is that there are workers who will never move beyond minimum wage,'' Doyle said. ``There are single parents and married parents who earn minimum wage due to the lack of their skills. It is those very people who will be displaced displaced see displacement. from their jobs.'' In a recent report commissioned by the institute, Florida State University Florida State University, at Tallahassee; coeducational; chartered 1851, opened 1857. Present name was adopted in 1947. Special research facilities include those in nuclear science and oceanography. professor Dr. David A. Macpherson predicted the increase would raise labor costs by more than $1 billion per year, triggering 32,000 layoffs. Art Pulaski, chief officer of the California Labor Federation disagreed with Macpherson's conclusions. ``Time after time, studies show that there is no significant job loss at all from raising the minimum wage,'' Pulaski said. ``It's an important step of progress for low-wage workers. With the high cost of living in the state, the living wage should be closer to $15 an hour. That is why we have to remain vigilant and push for a higher minimum wage.'' The commission also withdrew exemptions for several classes of workers, including home health care assistants and actors, who were not covered not covered Health care adjective Referring to a procedure, test or other health service to which a policy holder or insurance beneficiary is not entitled under the terms of the policy or payment system–eg, Medicare. Cf Covered. by the state minimum wage law. Commissioners let stand an exemption for about 100 shepherds until a wage board has a change to study the exemption. A final report is expected in six months. |
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