Oakland Nixes Proposal To Gradually Increase Minimum Wage

The Oakland City Council voted late Tuesday to scrap a plan that called for a gradual increase in the city's minimum wage for nonprofits and small businesses, instead leaving it up to the voters to consider a more aggressive proposal in November. The resolution, which was voted down 5-3 by the council, had called for Oakland to raise the city's minimum wage more slowly than a competing plan, called Lift Up Oakland, that will appear on the November ballot. Many worry the Lift Up Oakland plan, whichwould increase the city's base wage from $9 an hour to $12.25 an hour starting March 1, could have the unintended consequence of suffocating small businesses or send them fleeing outside the city. Councilwomen Pat Kernighan and Lynette Gibson McElhaney proposed an alternative ordinance that would raise the minimum wage for companies with more than 150 employees to $12.25 an hour starting October 2015. A study by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education found that raising Oakland's minimum wage would benefit 48,000 workers.s Gary Jimenez, president of the Lift Up Oakland Coalition, said 33,682 people had signed a petition to put the wage hike on the ballot"The voters said it was time," he said.