|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Following Mountain View’s lead, the Sunnyvale City Council on Tuesday approved its own timetable for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018, making it the second South Bay city to sign onto the growing movement.
However, the two cities won’t be adjusting wages entirely in tandem, meaning that Mountain View could be alone with higher wages for the first half of next year. Mountain View leaders in October adopted a plan to gradually ratchet up the base wage the start of each year. But Sunnyvale leaders opted for a different schedule, deciding to notch up wages starting in July 2016. Sunnyvale’s schedule would align with Mountain View’s starting in 2017, according to city officials.
Under both cities’ plans, the hourly minimum wage would rise to $11 in 2016, $13 in 2017, and $15 in 2018.
The approval puts the two cities in “partial alignment,” said Sunnyvale communications officer Jennifer Garnett. She said Sunnyvale officials originally wanted a similar timetable to Mountain View’s, but Mountain View officials switched to an earlier schedule when they approved their ordinance in October.
Sunnyvale officials didn’t have enough time to fully prepare and approve an ordinance that would take effect next month, she explained. Plus, Sunnyvale officials were concerned that a wage-hike in January would be too sudden for the city’s business community.
“The (Sunnyvale) council went with the July date to allow businesses a little more time to adjust,” Garnett said. “It allows our ordinance update process enough time to fully take effect.”
Sunnyvale has been Mountain View’s closest ally in the regional effort to raise the minimum wage, and the two cities had jointly convened community meetings to discuss the idea. For leaders in both cities, it made sense to boost minimum wage in unison in order to to avoid one city become a high-wage “island,” putting local businesses at a disadvantage.
The lapse between the two cities’ wage hike wouldn’t cause any major difficulties, said Mountain View Mayor John McAlister.
“What’s important is the end game of getting there,” he said. “The six months shouldn’t be a problem. (Sunnyvale) felt that it was the right to do it.”
Other South Bay cities have signaled interest in joining onto the “Raise the Wage” movement, which galvanized municipalities across California to better align low-end pay with the rising cost of the living. But in Santa Clara County, many cities are waiting to follow San Jose’s lead. That city is currently conducting an economic study on the $15-per-hour hike that should be completed early next year.
In the meantime, San Jose, as well as Santa Clara and Palo Alto, opted to raise their cities’ minimum wages to $11 at the start of next year as a one-time measure. At the same time, California will be going to a $10 statewide minimum wage starting on Jan. 1.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly explained Sunnyvale’s timetable in 2017 for raising its minimum wage.
low wages are only a part of the major socioeconomic changes affecting low income workers.
rising rents due to egregious increases are forcing renters to leave town, or double up with friends or family or move into their vehicles. some end up on the streets.
Mountain view has had the highest % increase in homelessness of ANY city in the county since 2011. San Jose now has fewer homeless since the last count in 2013, but the north county cities have all seen an increase.
The department of education keeps a tally of the number of homeless k-12 students in the us (defined as doubling up with friends or family or living in a shelter or motel or in a vehicle or on the ground). There are 1.2 million homeless kids k-12 with 1/4th in California and 3500 in Santa Clara County and our neighbor Sunnyvale has 625!
And our schools have seen the departure of 500 k-12 students to other less expensive cities in the county since last September.
Low income workers are departing at a rapid rate.
All these issues- low wages, rising rents and homelessness -are interrelated and pose a great challenge to our city and the region.
Our city council has stepped up to the plate as a regional leader being the first to substantially raise the minimum wage, are preparing several measures to help slow the rising rents and also help the renters affected, and are also beginning to address the issue of homelessness.
It helps when we tell our council members that we appreciate their efforts and their being a regional leader