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New bill threatens low wage earners By Sean Wolfe Ashland Daily Tidings State Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner lobbed a salvo across the bow of House Republicans debating a new bill that would cancel the annual cost-of-living adjustment to the minimum wage - an adjustment voters approved at the polls just four months ago. HB 2624 was introduced by Rep. Bill Garrard (R-Klamath Falls) at the request of the Oregon Restaurant Association and the Oregon Farm Bureau. Both organizations actively campaigned against Ballot Measure 25, which authorized the minimum wage increase. According to Gardner, any hike to minimum wage has always been a political football. "I think that the contention of the restaurant association, the grocery assocation and others - that the minimum wage increase established by Measure 25 will be a catastrophic raise - doesn't bear out," Gardner said. "We're the third state in the nation that has attached minimum wage to a consumer price index. One of those states, Washington, increased minimum wage 11 cents with their CPI, and increased it 50 cents over a three-year period. What Measure 25 allows is small, steady increases. That's best for employers, who don't have to initiate a hike all at once. And it's good for employees, who won't see their buying power decrease over time." The passage of Measure 25 gave Oregon's minimum wage workers their first raise in four years, increasing the wage from $6.50 to $6.90 per hour. The measure also requires the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries to calculate an annual cost of living adjustment every September for the following calendar year. The first annual adjustment would go into effect on January 1, 2004. Unlike the state of Washington, the consumer price index employed by Oregon is the national CPI. Washington uses a statewide CPI for its minimum wage calculation. Local restaurant owner Dal Carver, who owns the Wild Goose, said that while he'd "rather have a lower minimum wage as a selfish thing," he favored Measure 25. "The thing is, if you can afford it in the current economy, why allow the wage to decline. It's a matter of fairness. Why should people who make the least amount of money suffer due to inflation?" Carver said. "I could see how you could use different CPIs to determine the increase - like rural versus urban. But then you'd have two different minimum wages. So you have to pick an index and use it to make it fair." Carver employs 15 minimum wage workers, but said their wages are also supplemented by tips. Darrel Taylor, store director of Ashland's Albertsons, said he employs around 15 minimum wage workers to serve as courtesy clerks. Typically these are high school and college students. "The more gradual increase to wages makes more sense," Taylor said. "From a personal standpoint, we pay the bulk of our associates above minimum wage. In this part of the company - in my division, my area - we hire courtesy clerks at minimum, and they stay there. But all our other departments are not locked into that. We also like to be seen as an employer of choice. Our wages for associates are not minimum wage across the boards, like others do. And there's opportunity for increases," Taylor said. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -