Ore. minimum wage goes up Jan. 1; Wash. already highest in U.S.

KATU ^ | 12/28/10 | KATU News and KATU.com Staff

[Clint Williams]

PORTLAND, Ore. – On Jan. 1 the minimum wage throughout Oregon state goes up by a dime, to $8.50 an hour.

This cements Oregon and Washington's positions as the two highest-paid states for minimum-wage workers in the U.S.

Washington comes in first, at $8.55. Except for the past two years, Washington state's rate has risen steadily since voters passed Initiative 688 in 1998, which matched wage increases to inflation. Oregon comes in second.

Federal minimum wage is $7.25. ...

[Drango]

Excellent this will help many, many people get jobs.

Wait...What? Nevermind.

[VanDeKoik]

Minimum wage goes up. Median income goes up. Prices as a result (because the market can now bear it) goes up.

Minimum wage’s buying power goes right back to where it was, and lots of minimum wage jobs disappear because they cost to much to employ for what they do.

[blackdog]

The purpose of the minimum wage in politics is that it is the contractual baseline for all government union workers. A govenment worker earning $27.00 per hour will get a direct raise in their base pay for every penny the minimum wage increases. So the true purpose is to give raises to union workers when you can claim you froze their pay.

Remember the wages freeze Obamma boasted of last month?

Demand your legislators uncouple this mechanism from all federal employee contracts and union agreements.

By raising the minimum wage for a single mom working at Mcdonalds, you are doing nothing for her. Her mail carrier, DMV clerk, garbage collector, snow plow operator, and streets worker sure appreciate your good will however.

[sionnsar]

Say WA? Evergreen State ping

Quick link: WA State Board

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.
Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.

[sionnsar]

“Hey, neighbor!” ping

[Salvation]

Sure doesn’t help the small business owner, does it?

[Salvation]

If you aren't on this ping list and are interested

in articles about Oregon, please FReepmail me.

[pallis]

I haven’t lived in Washington state since the 80s. I rented a nice, little apartment for $90 a month and my electricity was $13 a month. Groceries were cheap, and I could eat at the restaurant across the street for very little. In later years I would drive into Seattle to fly to Alaska. There was a nice motel across form the airport that had inexpensive rooms, a lot where I could leave my truck for free, and free rides to the airport. I always loved Washington because it was cheap to live there. I bet that has changed.

[rickomatic]

Business leaders recently sued to stay yet another WA State minimum wage hike. A Kittitas (E WA) judge denied it just yesterday, so Jan. 1 the WA State minimum wage jumps another $0.12, to $8.67. The stank from Seattle is even drifting over the mountains and affecting the usually sane Dry Siders.

[bill1952]

>Minimum wage goes up. Median income goes up. Prices as a result (because the market can now bear it) goes up.

Half right. As the cost of labor goes up, so goes the price of the goods produced by that worker.
I wouldn’t want to be a McD’s manager in that environment.

[Spunky]

I heard Washington States is going up by another 12 cents in January also. There is an appeal on that so we will see.

[Hessian]

Federal minimum wage went up just about the time unemployment started going up didn’t it?

Wonder why more isn’t made of that little fact...

[Niuhuru]

Of course, no one realized that minimum wage isn’t supposed to be a LIFESTYLE wage, but something to start out with and then move up. Why people don’t understand this is beyond me really.