Milwaukie City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution to increase the minimum wage to $15 for all city workers, which is great, except no one actually gets a raise as a result.
Don’t get me wrong, symbolically it’s great. The city approved increases for all workers—including part-time, contract, a seasonal ones. The only thing is, there’s no one making less than $15 right now.
“The resolution affects the pay of our seasonal employees,” says Grady Wheeler, Milwaukie’s public affairs coordinator. “This past summer our four seasonal employees were making $13.85. Next year, the seasonal folks will earn $15.”
He added that any interns hired from now on will also get $15 per hour, so all-in-all, it’s a victory for the $15 per hour movement.
Justin Norton-Kertson, a leader in the 15NowPDX group, says Milwaukie’s decision bests Portland’s current situation.
“Unlike a similar raise wage to $15 implemented by the City of Portland earlier this year, the resolution in Milwaukie includes part-time and seasonal employees, as well as interns, setting a new bar for $15 in cities and counties here in Oregon,” he says. “The City of Milwaukie is the first locality outside of Multnomah County to take a stand and actively pass a $15 minimum wage for its workers.”
“Symbolic” is the key word here, because if you cannot legislate inflation, then this whole damned debate is nothing more than symbolic.
My granddaddy says that this is a good deal because there is no inflation. This is a deep recession with severe deflation about to get worse much, much, worse; worse that even 1929. That’s why he granted me a Swiss annuity held in trust and bought a farm in Tuscany.