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Campaign for Living Wage Amendments
Friday Sept. 14
Mayor Gavin Newsom signed the living wage amendments into law.
TUESDAY AUGUST 14
The
San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted ten to one on August 14 to
pass the amendments to the Living Wage law - aka Minimum Compensation
Ordinance (MCO). Supervisor Ed Jew was the only dissenting vote. The
amendments will come up for a second vote (as required by law) at the
Board's meeting on September 11. They will them be sent to the Mayor
for his signature. He will have ten days to sign the legislation into
law or veto it.
The
amendments will raise minimum wages for non-profit workers and CalWORKs
participants to $10.77 per hour on October 1 and to approximately
$11.16 per hour on Jan 1,2008, For Home Health Care Aides receiving a
hourly cash equivalent for the annual 12 paid days off, their minimum
wages will rise to $11.50 per hour on October 1 and approximately
$11.68 per hour on January 1, 2008.The amendments provide for annual
cost-of-living adjustments on January 1 in future years. The amendments
also require the City to provide adequate funding to non-profits so
they can raise wages without cutting services.
The
Supervisors were going to add another cost-of-living adjustment for
this year but the Mayor's Budget office miscalculated the cost when it
gave an estimate to the Supervisors for this year's budget. If the
Mayor's office corrects its mistake on this year's cost-of-living
adjustment, wages for non-profit workers and CalWORKs participants will
rise to $11.16 per hour on October 1 and approximately $11.56 per hour
on January 1, 2008. Home Health Care Aides wages will rise to $11.68
per hour on Oct 1 and approximately $12.09 per hour on January 1, 2008.
HOW THE SUPERVISORS VOTED:
YES Aaron Peskin, Michela Alioto-Pier, Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly, Bevan Dufty,
Sean Elsbernd, Sophie Maxwell, Jake McGoldrick, Ross Mirkarimi, Geraldo Sandoval.
NO Ed Jew
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 8, 1PM
The August 8th Board of
Supervisors' Budget and Finance Committee meeting was a great success
thanks to the many supporters of the Living Wage amendments who
attended and those that testified at the hearing. Labor Council
Leaders, a Manager of the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards
Enforcement Division (OSLE) testified that their office was receiving
calls from City contractors asking if they had to raise the wages of
their non-profit workers to the City wide $9.14 per hour minimum wage,
because for non-profit workers the minimum wage is still legally $9.00
per hour, Non-profit Administrators, Homecare and Non-profit workers
(both active and retired), and Childcare workers convinced the
Committee members to send the amendments to the full Board for a vote !
The real surprise was Committee Chairman, and Board President, Aaron
Peskin becoming a Co-Sponsor of the amendments.
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 1st
On Wednesday, August 1, the
Board of Supervisors' Budget and Finance Committee held a hearing on
Supervisor Tom Ammiano's proposed living wage amendments that would
significantly raise wages for more than 15, 000 home health care aides,
non-profit workers and CalWORKs parents in the welfare-to-work
transition.
There was an outpouring of
support for the amendments. Besides the many phone calls and emails
sent to supervisors, low-wage workers and their allies testified at the
hearing. Home health care aides and non-profit workers spoke on how the
rising cost of living is driving them out of the City. Seniors and
family members spoke on how they relied on their experienced home care
workers and services from non-profit agencies. A young man whose mother
is a home health care aide said it was shameful that "his mother
brought home a paycheck that was comparable to that of a teenager
working at McDonald's." The executive director and a vice president
from the San Francisco Labor Council said Labor is committed to getting
the amendments passed. The executive director of the San Francisco
Building and Construction Trades Council also gave his support to the
amendments. Members of Church Women United spoke on the moral
imperative of raising people who worked full-time out of poverty.
The supervisors were obviously moved by the testimony. Although the
chair of the Budget and Finance Committee and Board President Aaron
Peskin postponed a vote on the amendments until Wednesday of next week,
he said he was confident that the amendments would be voted out of
committee and sent to a vote of the full board. He even announced that
the full Board will vote on the amendments on August 14.
After the Board votes on the
amendments, they are sent to the Mayor who either signs them into law
or vetoes them. If eight members of the Board support the amendments,
they can over-ride the Mayor's veto.
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