ON Tuesday, Nov. 4, San Francisco voters approved Proposition J, a measure that will raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 by July 2018. More than 100,000 are expected to benefit from the measure.
“Tonight, San Francisco voters sent a message loudly and clearly to the nation that we can take on the growing gap between rich and poor, we can give a well-deserved raise to our lowest-wage workers, and we can do it in a way that protects jobs and small business,” Mayor Edward Lee said in a statement.
The city’s current minimum wage is $10.74, but it faces a rising cost of living and significant income inequalities. A July 2014 city controller report revealed that the median rent has risen twice as fast as the minimum wage since 2005.
Proposition J outlines a gradual increase throughout the next seven years. At the beginning of January, wages will rise to $11.05. In May 2015, the minimum hourly pay rate will be $12.25. Raises will continue until 2018, bringing the minimum annual income to $31,200.
San Francisco is the second state to raise its minimum wage to $15, following a similar decision passed in Seattle in June. However, Seattle’s wage will take more time before it is fully implemented in 2021 and comprises both hourly compensation and tips in the total sum.
Proposition J also has some exemptions, including minors working in training programs subsidized by the government and adults older than 55 at similarly subsidized nonprofit organizations.
Supporters of the ballot measure raised $400,000, according to the San Francisco Examiner. It faced limited opposition, including that from the San Francisco Council of District Merchants Association, and there were no mobilized campaigns against it.
A similar proposition, Measure FF, was passed also in Oakland, which increases workers’ hourly salaries to $12.25 in March from $9.
Twelve other states have proposed to raise minimum wages in the past two years. On Nov. 4, Alaska voted to raise the hourly rate to $9.75 by 2016, while Arkansas voters approved a wage of $8.50. In Nebraska, voters passed an hourly wage of $9, and South Dakota succeeded in passing a proposition to increase the hourly salary to $8.50.
(With reports from CNN, Forbes, The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle)
