This was last year's hourly wage increase.
This was (almost) last years hourly wage increase.
  • This was (almost) last year’s hourly wage increase.

For the first time in seven years, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry will not raise our state’s minimum wage. The group announced today that because inflation has not risen in the past year, neither will Oregon’s lowest-paid jobs.

Since voters passed Measure 25 back in 2002, Oregon’s minimum wage has been linked to inflation: as inflation rises, so must the minimum wage. But this year, the Consumer Price Index (a measure of inflation) declined 1.48 percent, so our lowest paid workers (except, of course, legions of unpaid interns) will continue receiving $8.40 an hour. Last year, workers on the lowest rung got an extra 45 cents an hour cost-of-living increase. That’s nine mini Tootsie Rolls an hour!

Think tank the Oregon Center for Public Policy notes that while increasing workers’ take-home pay benefits the economy because we’re able to buy more stuff, Oregon still has the second highest minimum wage in the country. We’re 15 cents an hour behind Washington state’s minimum wage but a whole $1.15/hour ahead of the national minimum.

$8.40 an hour still isn’t enough to raise a family on, though, says the public policy group. Working full time, you would earn $17,472— that’s $900 below the federal poverty line for a family of three.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

4 replies on “No Raise for Oregon’s Least-Paid Workers”

  1. Are teenagers and entry level workers supposed to make enough to raise a family?
    No, it’s so work your way up via experience or education.
    Hike the minimum wage and employers hire FEWER employees.
    (Also see: Oregon’s unemployment rate)
    Why not raise it to $50 an hour? Or $100?
    My raises the past 2 years (with 15 years in my field) have been around 4 Tootsie rolls an hour, so they can suck it.

  2. Is it really that obscene that one full-time minimum wage salary isn’t enough to comfortably raise a family on? Are there other countries where that IS the case?

    I’m no trickle-down economist, but ask any small business owner who pays minimum wage (payroll being by far the highest expense for most of them), and they will tell you the same as D just did: too frequent minimum wage hikes result in LESS jobs, and that extra few nickels isn’t really helping the poor workers left standing that much anyway.

    Ask Steve why your interns are unpaid, why you’re paid what you are, what the Merc actually pays for the benefits you receive (if you are lucky enough to receive benefits) and why you can’t afford copy editing, and you’ll start to get a good idea of just how expensive employees are, and how razor thin I imagine your paper’s margins are these days. Next, ask what would happen if every intern had to get minimum wage plus four dollars an hour, and if every paid employee got a two dollar an hour raise.

  3. D, if you haven’t gotten a raise in two years, maybe it’s because you spend so much time commenting on the Mercury’s Blog instead of actually working.

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