CA: Governor asks dormant commission to raise minimum wage

AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 5/18/06 | Steve Lawrence - ap

[NormsRevenge]

Adopting a new tactic in a fight over the minimum wage, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked a dormant state commission Thursday to raise the wage by $1 an hour without the annual cost-of-living increases sought by Democrats.

The Republican governor sent a letter to Bill Dombrowski, chairman of the Industrial Welfare Commission, and asked the panel to consider raising the wage from $6.75 to $7.75 in two steps over a nine-month period.

A decision by the commission to grant the increase could give Schwarzenegger political cover if, as expected, he vetoes legislation later this year raising the wage and requiring subsequent annual adjustments to tie it to inflation.

"It's a political year, and the governor finally realizes that the minimum wage is a popular issue," said Art Pulaski, secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation. "He realizes he better do something fast."

A spokesman for Schwarzenegger, Darrel Ng, denied that the governor had political motives.

"The governor believes the working families of California deserve an increase in the minimum wage, and believes that now is the time the economy can afford it," Ng said

But the commission has existed only on paper since the Legislature cut off its funding in 2004 after labor leaders accused it of having a pro-employer bias.

Dombrowski, who is president of the California Retailers Association, said the five-member commission hasn't met for about three years and was told by the attorney general's office that it could no longer adopt minimum wage increases because it had no funding.

But H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the Department of Finance, said funding for commission activities could come out of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement's budget.

"There are still statutory responsibilities for the commission to carry out," he said.

Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed bills that would have raised the minimum wage. But this year, in a move widely seen as an attempt to moderate his image as he runs for re-election, he announced he would support an increase.

He backed legislation by Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, that have would raised the wage by $1 without subsequent inflation adjustments, but the measure died in committee.

In his letter to Dombrowski, Schwarzenegger said annual inflation adjustments would be "inconsistent with the comprehensive, analytic, 'cost-of-a-proper-living' standard" that should be used in considering minimum wage increases.

"Raising the wage should be based on careful consideration of both past economic activity and future economic indicators," the governor added. "That is how California's minimum wage has been increased in the past and why California's economy has been able to grow and expand at the same time the minimum wage has risen."

But Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Santa Clara, said Schwarzenegger should negotiate with the Legislature over the terms of a minimum wage increase instead of "appealing to a commission that no longer exists."

"Trying to have an end run around the Legislature and doing it through a commission that doesn't exist is not a real effort," she said.

A bill by Lieber that's pending in the Senate would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 on July 1, 2007, and to $7.75 on July 1, 2008. After that, the bill would require annual increases each Jan. 1 to keep up with inflation.

Without the automatic inflation adjustments, minimum wage increases will continue to be a "political football that gets tossed back and forth," she said.

California's current minimum is the nation's seventh highest along with those of four other states and lags behind the entry-level pay offered in Washington, Oregon, Connecticut, Vermont, Alaska and the District of Columbia, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Already approved wage hikes in New York, New Jersey and Hawaii are scheduled to move those states ahead of California later this year or early in 2007.

[Doug Halsted]

Arnold must really like paying more for everything. Doesn't he know that few people that aren't in high school or retired actually make minimum wage? If he makes it more expensive for companies to hire entry level workers, there will be fewer entry level jobs.