By By 2016, California will have the highest state minimum wage in the U.S., according to Reuters.
After being approved by Gov. Jerry Brown in late September, Assembly Bill 10 will raise California’s minimum wage to $9 per hour by July 2014, according to the bill’s text.
Seventeen months later, January 2016, the minimum wage will increase to $10 per hour, according to the bill’s text.
“The minimum wage has not kept pace with rising costs,” Brown said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “This legislation is overdue and will help families that are struggling in this harsh economy.”
Given the high cost of living within the State of California, we feel raising the minimum wage is much needed.
Ensuring that all minimum-wage workers, including many college students, see an increase in wages is vital to their overall well-being.
At $8 an hour, the average minimum-wage student worker would earn $8,320 before taxes for working 52 20-hour weeks.
At $10 an hour, the same worker would earn $10,400 working the same hours.
Clearly, the $2,080 increase would do a lot for the average minimum-wage worker.
California’s minimum wage hasn’t matched up with inflation. The last time California increased its minimum wage was on Jan. 1, 2008, according to the Department of Industrial Relations.
To match inflation, minimum wage should have been at least $8.69 per hour in 2013, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Although the majority of California lawmakers supported the minimum wage increase, there were some who expressed opposition.
“To cover the costs of this increase, employers will have to cut hours and hire fewer workers,” State Assembly leader Connie Conway (R-Tulare) told Reuters. “The Legislature should be taking steps to create more high-paying jobs, not penalizing the people who need the help the most.”
While we can’t completely predict what effect the minimum wage increase will have on the economy, we think Conway’s remarks are short-sighted.
Increasing the minimum wage over the next few years, rather than immediately, will give employers enough time to prepare for the increase in costs.
If the minimum wage was to jump from $8 to $10 overnight, then Conway’s argument might be more compelling.
To refuse to raise California’s minimum wage and not adjust earner’s incomes to match inflation is both short-sighted and unfair.
We look forward to the minimum wage increase and are eager to see it implemented.
After all, we could all use a few extra bucks.
