The state already has one of the highest minimum wages in the nation at $9.25, but by 2022 that would increase to $14.75 in Portland, $13.50 in smaller cities like Salem and Eugene, followed by $12.50 in Oregon’s rural communities.
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The passage of the bill means almost 5 percent of the state’s workforce making minimum wage would receive a raise this July and raises each year after that until maxing out in 2022, when increases in the state’s minimum wage will again be tied to inflation.
The three-tier system divided the state into the Portland metro area; quasi-urban areas such as Lane County and much of the rest of the Willamette Valley; and rural counties.
Oregon’s proposed three-tiered wage increase will make it the only state that increases by region. Unlike two pending union-backed ballot measures that would create a statewide minimum of $15 or $13.50, Senate Bill 1532 would divide the state into three regions. Another dozen or so are considering taking up the issue this year, either through legislative action or ballot initiative.
Massachusetts, California, and Vermont all recently hiked their minimum wages above $10, but this legislation will put Oregon’s minimum wage ahead of Massachusetts as the highest in the country.
In Arkansas, voters approved a 2014 ballot measure to boost the state’s minimum wage from $6.25 per hour. In smaller cities and areas, including Deschutes County, the minimum wage will rise to $13.50.
A regional approach would balance the needs of rapidly growing Portland with Oregon’s struggling farming communities, long separated from the state’s largest city by economic, cultural and political differences.
OR lawmakers have set the state on course for a higher minimum wage. Republicans, the minority party in the Oregon Statehouse, have opposed the increase.
“This bill raises the wage too slowly, and it leaves working families outside Portland even further behind”, said the group’s organizer, Justin Norton-Kertson. “Unfortunately, some will give up and sell, while others will simply go out of business”, Barry Bushue, president of Oregon Farm Bureau, told The Associated Press.
It also would make Oregon’s minimum wage for all workers the highest in the USA, according to D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
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