SF minimum wage gets boost Jan. 1

The lowest-wage workers in San Francisco will receive a 3 percent pay bump come Jan. 1, when the minimum wage increases from $10.74 an hour to $11.05, Mayor Edwin Lee said Thursday.

On Tuesday, San Francisco residents will vote on Proposition J, which proposes raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018.

Lee lauded the city for leading the nation in addressing income inequality and supporting low wage earners and working families:

“A hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. This November, we have the opportunity to raise the minimum wage in a way that supports our businesses, protects our economic recovery and boosts wages for working people.”

Supervisor Jane Kim, co-sponsor of the Minimum Wage Ordinance on the November ballot, said residents deserve to able to live where they work and support their families:

“Given all that San Francisco has already done to support a living wage, it’s no surprise that we’re leading the nation again.”

San Francisco voters enacted a local minimum wage rate in 2004 that is tied to the previous year’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), according the Mayor’s Office.

In 2004, when the minimum wage increased to $8.50 an hour, it was the highest in the country.

Despite CPI adjustments, Lee said the minimum wage has not kept pace with the inflated cost of living in San Francisco.

The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25. The California minimum wage is $9.00 but is slated to rise to $10 an hour on Jan. 1, 2016.

The largest increase to the California minimum wage took effect in 1947, when the minimum wage rose 44 percent, from 45 cents an hour to 65 cents an hour, according to the Department of Industrial Relations.

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