Oakland City Council Rejects Challenge to Minimum Wage Ballot Measure

Posted in Business, Labor, Responsive Government

By Post Staff

The Oakland City Council this week turned down a proposal that would have gradually raised the city’s minimum wage to $13 an hour in three year, which was opposed by the labor-backed Lift Up coalition that is sponsoring a $12.25 an hour measure.

The Lift Up measure will be on the ballot in November and would go into effect next in March.

The council resolution, sponsored by Council President Pat Kernighan and Councilmember Lynette McElhaney was voted down 5-3. Besides its two sponsors, it was supported by Larry Reid.

Voting against the resolution were Libby Schaaf, Rebecca Kaplan, Noel Gallo, Desley Brooks and Dan Kalb.

The council members’ ordinance was written to moderate the Lift Up measure. It was designed to protect small businesses with less than 15 employees, youth and adult job training programs that depend on a fixed pot of state and federal funds and home health workers for the frail and elderly.

These workers hourly rates are set by the state and do increase in response to a city ordinance.

Supporters of the Lift Up proposal criticized the council members proposal as too little and too late, some characterizing it as “the Chamber of Commerce” resolution.

Lift Up supporters said low wage workers were desperate for a wage increase and have waited for decades to see an increase in their hourly rate They say they have the backing of Oakland residents, pointing to the more than 33,000 voters who have signed the petition to place the measure on the ballot.

Support the council proposal was Amy Roither-Quintero, a partner in a downtown restaurant for less than a year. She said the Lift Up wage increase would cost her restaurant $47,000 a year.

“It is not going to lift anyone up when businesses have to close and no one has a job,” she said.