Campaign for City Funding for MCO Wage Increase for Non-profits in 2020

The Budget and Appropriations Committee of the Board of Supervisors, led by chair Supervisor Sandra Fewer with members Supervisors Shamann Walton, Hillary Ronen, Norman Yee and Rafael Mandelman, approved in their proposed spending plan $2.1 million for the 3.31 percent cost-of-living adjustment to the Minimum Compensation Ordinance retroactive to July 1 as a one-time, one-year “Non-profit Worker Emergency Support.” This will increase the minimum wage for city-funded non-profit workers and CalWORKs parents in welfare-to-work programs from $16.50 to $17.05. The Supervisors also included $675,000 in additional funding to raise wages for IHSS home care workers to $17.50 per hour.

The Budget and Appropriations Committee approved $12.6 million for a 3 percent cost-of-doing business increase for non-profit organizations starting October 1 as “Non-profit Emergency Support,” which is also a one-year, one-time appropriation. This funding can be used to give a 3 percent wage increase for all workers earning above $16.50 per hour.

In addition, the Committee included $36.9 million for providing a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment for city workers in December.

The Supervisors took $59 million out of the more than $800 million in reserves, which the City saves for bad budget years. If Prop F passes in November, increasing the City’s gross receipts tax, it would raise up to $300 million.

The Board of Supervisors will vote on the proposed budget on September 22 and it would take effect on October 1.

Mayor London Breed has threatened to block the funding for these wage increases, saying that pulling the money from reserves will further destabilize the City already in economic turmoil, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The San Francisco Living Wage Coalition argues that the most effective stimulus funding is putting more dollars in the pockets of workers, who spend them in the local economy, building a healthier economy from the bottom up. We have the historical experience of the 2008 Great Recession. The municipal minimum wage in San Francisco had ramped up in steps and the Supervisors had just passed an increase to the Minimum Compensation Ordinance. Because of this, San Francisco weathered the Great Recession better than most areas of California. Raising wages is the path to economic recovery. Austerity measures are the worst action that can be taken during an economic downturn.

Please share our campaign and petition on your social media to spread the message. Watch and share a worker’s testimony below:

Stanley Edwards at St. Vincent de Paul homeless shelter (formerly MSC South)

Charles Commings at Community Housing Partnership.