A large coalition of left-leaning groups on Wednesday said they would push the Legislature to approve a statewide minimum wage of $13.50 while also changing state law to allow cities like Portland to approve a higher wage.
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At the campaign launch, the coalition released a report by Our Oregon showing that a minimum wage of $13.50 per hour is needed to provide a base income for Oregon’s rural counties.
“People feel mixed about what the actual minimum wage should be”, said Andrea Miller, director of Causa, an immigrant-rights group that is part of the coalition seeking $13.50.
The ballot proposal calls for the minimum hourly wage to rise to $12.50 in July 2017 and to $15 three years later.
Oregon’s minimum wage is now $9.25 an hour and is adjusted annually for inflation.
A wage of $13.50 per hour would help people support their families.
A new coalition pushing a higher minimum wage says it will give legislators one more chance to do the job before it begins work on a ballot initiative for the 2016 election. In the coming weeks, the coalition will bring the conversation about raising the wage to communities across the state. Low-wage workers shouldn’t have to wait any longer than that for action, she said. “Raising the minimum wage is a smart business decision”. “More money in the pockets of more employees means more paying customers for small businesses and more money being spent in our local economy”.
The new proposal is similar to the $13-an-hour minimum wage that Kotek proposed during the last legislative session.
Although lawmakers passed other bills – a requirement for paid sick leave, a state-sponsored plan for retirement savings, a ban on criminal-history inquiries on initial job applications – Chamberlain described inaction on the minimum wage “the one glaring exception”. “Our coalition will be actively mobilizing Oregonians in every corner of the state to make sure legislators know that raising the wage is a top priority for the February 2016 session. Voters deserve nothing less”. In Portland, they will start at 10 a.m.at the AFL-CIO office, 3645 S.E. 32nd Ave. Two of the chief petitioners for the $15 minimum wage are from the Oregon farmworkers union known as PCUN and Jobs with Justice – both organizations represented in the Raise the Wage coalition.
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Labor groups in the coalition include the Oregon AFL-CIO, SEIU, Oregon Education Association, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, AFSCME, and the Oregon Nurses Association.
