San Francisco Living Wage Coalition
2940 – 16th Street #301
San Francisco, CA 94103
ph. 415-863-1225 – fax 863-1927 – email: sflivingwage@riseup.net
www.livingwage-sf.org
December 14, 2012
For Immediate Release
Contacts: Karl Kramer, Campaign Co-director, 415-863-1225 office
David Frias, Campaign Co-director, 415-503-7066 cell
San Francisco’s Minimum Wage Increases in January
San Francisco’s lowest wage workers will get some relief on January 1 by seeing their wage keep up with inflation.
Low-wage workers will celebrate the upcoming wage increase at the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition’s End of the Year celebration on Saturday, December 15, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at 2940 – 16th Street, San Francisco, with food, music and poetry.
San Francisco’s Minimum Wage Ordinance will require that employers pay at least $10.55 per hour starting on January 1, a 3 percent increase from the current rate of $10.24 per hour.
The Minimum Wage Ordinance covers any employee who works at least two hours a week for an employer within the boundaries of San Francisco, or on city-owned property such as San Francisco Airport.
The minimum wage under California law is $8 per hour. In other states that do not have a minimum wage law, workers fall under the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. San Francisco now has the highest minimum wage in the country. Santa Fe, New Mexico, has a minimum wage of $10.29 per hour, with an increase for inflation scheduled for March 1. Washington, D.C., has a minimum wage of $8.50 per hour.
After the November 6 elections, joining the club of cities with a minimum wage higher than federal or state law, San Jose passed a minimum wage of $10 per hour with annual inflation adjustments by 59 percent of voters, and 66 percent voted in Albuquerque, NM, to raise their minimum wage from $7.50 per hour to $8.50 per hour with annual cost-of-living adjustments.
In San Francisco, the City Controller calculates the annual cost-of-living adjustment by the increase in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area from August of last year to August of this year. The increase was 3 percent. Last year’s calculation was 3.2 percent.
“If you work hard and play by the rules, you deserve a raise,” David Frias said of the wage increase that he will receive as a security guard and theater usher. “It is only fair.” Frias is the campaign co-director of the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition.
The San Francisco Living Wage Coalition is a grassroots movement of low-wage workers and their allies who have been fighting since 1998 for economic justice. The Living Wage Coalition was on the steering committee that led a campaign to pass a ballot initiative in 2003 that established San Francisco’s Minimum Wage Ordinance.
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