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RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE Local CEO wants to study idea of median wage Comment By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness MailTribune.com By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Feb. 3, 2016 at 2:56 PM Updated at 3:32 PM By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Feb. 3, 2016 at 2:56 PM Updated at 3:32 PM » Social News Jessica Gomez has no problem with the minimum wage going up. She just thinks there is a better way to boost income for lower-tier workers than what the Legislature is considering or union-backed ballot measures offer. Gomez, founder and CEO of Rogue Valley Microdevices, is a member of the Oregon Workforce Investment Board and Rogue Workforce Development Council and is an Oregon Institute of Technology board member. "There are lots of valid reasons why you want to see wages increase," Gomez said. "You want to prevent the large company from taking advantage of the single mom who's working 40 to 60 hours a week and never gets a raise. That sort of thing you don't want to see happen." Neither does she want to see wage compression follow large minimum hikes over a short period of time. Nor the potential impact on colleges and nonprofits if they have to pay more to students and employees. Gomez was pondering the problem one fall morning when the idea of a median wage emerged. "What would it look like if, instead of raising the bottom ... we made an adjustment in the middle?" she said. "A company has to have some sort of balance in its wage range. We want to encourage companies to do the right thing, so what would it look like if we said, you could hire people at a minimum wage, but we're going to create a policy that discourages you from keeping them there." If, for example, a company had 60 employees, half of them would have to earn more than the $15 median wage. "People who work hard should be able to progress in their career and should receive appropriate compensation, creating a system more conducive to wage gain and creating a career path and a ladder for people to earn to their maximum potential," Gomez said. Since December, she's met with more than a dozen members of the state House and Senate, Democrat and Republican, hoping to open some eyes. The response was surprisingly positive, but the window of opportunity too narrow with the short off-year February legislative session in Salem. "The challenge is that it's a brand-new approach to wage policy," Gomez said. "It hasn't been tested and hasn't been vetted, but they've indicated that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. It means there is some additional data that needs to be gathered. It's a more targeted way to achieve the goal of increasing the minimum wage and creating a way for people to make a living wage." After a nod of interest, most of the politicians wanted to know whether the idea had been tried elsewhere, Gomez said. "I can't find an example of it," she said. "It's sort of an unknown. It's brand new." Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, said she found the proposal intriguing, but the Legislature has little time to examine new approaches. "Democracy works best when engaged citizens like Jessica bring their ideas forward for consideration," Burdick said in an email. "Given the timeline and climate right now, though, the governor’s proposal is the only one the Legislature is working with at this time." According to first-quarter 2015 data compiled by the Employment Department from unemployment insurance records, 60 percent of the state's 92,411 firms already pay median wages above $15 per hour. Of the 49,911 employers with a staff of four or fewer, 32,548 paid median hourly wages of more than $15. While minimum-wage raises are a must, Gomez said, "the current proposal is for a $4-an-hour jump or a $5-an-hour jump over a pretty compressed time frame." Businesses want flexibility and the ability to mitigate risks when they hire trainees or people with "spotty" work experience, she said. "The idea would be to create a wage ladder, so people could earn more," Gomez said. "They can't have more than 50 percent of their company scrunched down at that lower wage." Aware that the Legislature is feeling pressure to provide an alternative to ballot measures, Gomez isn't expecting anything soon. "Their goal is to try to avoid a big, costly fight about the ballot measure and try to create a policy that satisfies the folks who are really hammering on it from the labor side," she said. "It's really tough when you have people saying, if you don't do what we want, we'll take it to the ballot." Still, Gomez said her idea needs to be vetted, and she would welcome testing the proposal in Jackson and Josephine counties. "There need to be resources provided to look at the data for both the big raise on minimum wage and this concept so we can, as a state, implement," she said. "It's a really tricky topic." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness , and read his blog at www.mailtribune.com/Economic Edge. By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness MailTribune.com By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Feb. 3, 2016 at 2:56 PM Updated at 3:32 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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