SUPERVISORS CONSIDER RAISING WAGES FOR 25,000 LOW-WAGE WORKERS

On Thursday, April 12, the Board of Supervisor’s Budget and Finance Committee will hold a hearing on Supervisor Jeff Sheehy’s proposed living wage amendments that would significantly raise wages for more than 25,000 workers in San Francisco, including publicly-funded home health care aides, workers at city-funded non-profit agencies, parents in CalWORKs, a program in which family heads, predominately women, work for public assistance, and people who work on city-leased property at San Francisco airport.
Advocates are holding a press rally on Thursday, April 12, at 9 a.m. on the steps of City Hall facing the Civic Center, prior to the Budget and Finance Committee meeting which starts at 10 a.m..
“I can’t afford an apartment in the Bay Area. I am renting a room from a family friend. Many of my co-workers are leaving for the Valley,” said Kevin Prasad, who guards a security check-point at the airport
The amendments to the Minimum Compensation Ordinance, the formal name of the living wage law, would require that workers, with whom the City has contracted to provide services to San Francisco residents, at non-profit agencies be paid the same minimum rate as workers at for-profit city service contractors.
The amendments would raise the minimum rate for workers at both non-profit, currently $14 per hour, and at for-profit city contractors, currently $14.02 per hour, to $16.86 per hour on July 1. In following years, the minimum rate would increase with annual cost-of-living adjustments based on the Bay Area Consumer Price Index.

Amendments to Improve San Francisco’s Living Wage Law

For more information, contact the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition at 415-863-1225

● The Living Wage law – the Minimum Compensation Ordinance – has raised the minimum wage and provided 12 days paid sick leave, holidays and vacation for employees of for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations receiving service contracts from the City or leasing property at the airport.

● The amendments to the San Francisco Minimum Compensation Ordinance would set a living wage standard at $16.86 per hour by July 1, 2018, for workers at city contractors or at the airport.

● The amendments would provide to non-profit workers, IHSS home care workers, and participants in welfare-to-work programs the same wage rate and cost-of-living increases as workers at for-profit businesses receive.

● The Minimum Compensation Ordinance includes language that the City would make a commitment to budget adequate funding for non-profit organizations so that they can raise wages without laying off staff and cutting services.

● The amendments provide for annual cost-of-living increases after 2018 based on the Bay Area Consumer Price Index, which will raise the minimum wage for all workers covered by the Minimum Compensation Ordinance – non-profit workers and workers at for-profit businesses on city service contracts, and workers at the airport.

● There is no better investment than investing in the people who do the hard work of taking care of our elderly and disabled, mentoring our youth, counseling families, caring for the homeless and serving our City. It is the right thing to do.