Posted on 08/23/2006 7:04:10 AM PDT by Hydroshock
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers reached a deal late Monday to hike the minimum wage to the highest level in the nation, aides said on Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
The agreement between the Republican governor and the Democrat-led legislature's leaders would increase California's minimum wage by $1.25 over the next year and a half to $8 an hour. The deal calls for an increase of 75 cents an hour next January and a rise of 50 cents an hour the following January.
The new wage would be 25 cents more than initially offered by Schwarzenegger, who vetoed previous bills to hike the state's minimum wage. In exchange, Democrats dropped demands the wage automatically adjust upward with inflation changes.
Schwarzenegger, a fiscal conservative and ally of business groups concerned about the cost of doing business in California, said the state economy had recovered and companies could afford to pay minimum-wage workers more.
"I have always said that when the economy was ready, we should reward the efforts of California's hard-working families by raising our minimum wage," he said in statement.
The agreement would benefit low-paid workers, said Assembly Member Sally Lieber, a Democrat who had advanced a minimum wage bill earlier this year. "We have a moral obligation to ensure that the minimum wage keeps pace with federal poverty guidelines. This bill does that," she said.
Business groups and labor unions were not pleased by the agreement, which Democratic lawmakers can pass without votes from minority Republicans.
"We appreciate the governor's opposition to indexing the minimum wage and not walking into automatic increases, but we still oppose increasing the minimum wage," said Michael Shaw, an officer of the National Federation of Independent Business, a small-business advocacy group. "It takes away resources from business owners, who are in the best position to decide how to invest in their companies."
Art Pulaski, secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, said the state's AFL-CIO could live without an inflation-adjusted minimum wage over the near term.
"We realize that from a Republican governor who is so close to big corporations ... that we would never get him there," Pulaski said. "Fortunately, it's an election year, so we leveraged that to push him to do something."
Schwarzenegger is running for re-election against Democratic challenger and state Treasurer Phil Angelides, who is favored by unions, and is moving to improve his standing with Democrats and independent voters who turned against him in a controversial special election he called last year.
The Hollywood icon signed a bill on Monday that aims to make California one of the world's biggest producers of solar energy and is in talks with lawmakers on a bill to cap industrial emissions of greenhouse gas, popular ideas in a Democrat-leaning state where environmental issues rank high with voters.
Angelides said in a statement he would back an inflation-adjusted minimum wage.
"After three years of denying Californians the minimum wage increase they deserve, Governor Schwarzenegger is now trying to save his own job by giving minimum support to the minimum wage," Angelides added.
But are we obligated tp pay this wage to illegal aliens? I think not.
Practically, no one makes minimum wage in California.
One million out of 35 million on minimum wage here - most in their teens. The headline is wrong - this increase makes us 3rd highest to Oregon and New York.
Ton's of people make the min. in CA...........
It's an entry level wage for many, many businesses....and I can name companies if you need them.
Just more Democrat political jockeying for an edge in the war to unseat Schwarzenegger.
Big time Californication at it's ugliest.
( None but the campaign managers really care a fig about the issue or the wage -earner in all of this. Just crummy "Big Time" California politics.)
The left would love to have total control over wages and prices (communism). They can't get it yet. So they give us communism-lite. Notice how the politicians are happy-giggling about controlling ATM fees but totally refuse to control taxes.
I'm wise to their tactics.
That's gotta be one of the stupidest things I've heard in a long time.
"Ton's of people make the min. in CA..........."
I think in the US it's about 2.5% of all hourly workers, not counting salaried workers, make minimum wage. Are you suggesting it is considerably higher in CA?
Just be thankful they're not requiring a "living wage" for all of California, what with the average price of a home in most cities being around $600,000.
Nope...I was replying to the posters statement.
This might start another gold rush...
But yet people wonder why everything is so expensive in California.
This country can't sustain itself if 85% of the people have lost all common sense.
Just wondering. I just think if there has to be a minimum wage, it should be a state thing and not national. CA's is pretty high so I wwas wondering if that relegated more people than normal to making minimum.
Practical experience tells me that the higher the "min. wage" goes...the higher the number of people "only making min. wage" goes...
The high cost liberal centers (cities) is having an impact on the future demographics of CA. The typical liberals have a birthrate of 1.47 per 100, while the conservatives have a birthrate of 2.08 per 100. Feminist attitudes in marriage and high cost liberal areas (need for dual incomes) discourage large families. Let the liberals keep piling policies that undermind their future. Most kids (about 80 percent) vote the party their parents support. Assuming the GOP and Democrat Party does not change their positions by much, in the next 14 years there should be slightly more GOP voters than Dem voters. Ohio will be 60 percent GOP over Dems, and New York state 55 percent GOP over Dems. In 2012 these demographics will start to manifest, by 2020 it will become more pronounce. Fourteen years seem like a long time, but it is not, so Conservatives don't get discouraged, hang in there.
/sarcasm off
They should raise it so everyone makes $100,000 a year. Then we will all be rich and happy! (Sarcasm dripping)
Plus, aren't some salaries keyed to multiples of the min. wage?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.