Comment on Emeryville council votes to raise minimum wage

Workers in Emeryville will be taking home bigger paychecks this summer as the City Council unanimously voted to raise that city’s minimum wage Tuesday night. Set to take effect June 1, the new ordinance mandates that workers at small businesses, defined in Emeryville as 55 or fewer employees, will be paid $12.25 an hour with incremental raises toward a $15-an-hour wage by 2018. “The primary goal of all this is to lift the floor of poverty for our lowest paid workers,” said Mayor Ruth Atkin. Atkin said that there had been some sticking points during discussions over the last few months about exactly how a small business should be defined, with some — especially in the food and service industries — concerned about the original proposal, which defined small businesses as having 10 employees or fewer. While Emeryville is not the biggest city in the Bay Area — it’s just over two square miles with a population of around 10,700 — a minimum wage hike means more there than in some other places, according to Jennifer Lin, Deputy Director of the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy.