We’re gratified to see that Governor Brown has signed a law which gradually raises the minimum wage in California to $15/hour by 2022. Joining the State of New York, California continues its role as a bellwether state, and an increase in the minimum wage in other states is at this point inevitable.
For the past two years, we at the SUN have been urging the City of Sonoma to raise its minimum wage. Prior to the council election in 2014, the previous council majority directed city staff to issue an RFP soliciting bids from economic analysts on the effect of raising the minimum wage in the City of Sonoma, but that RFP was never issued. From what we’ve been told, the matter was “lowered on the list of priorities”, meaning “buried.” We objected repeatedly, to deaf ears.
With action being delayed for so long, events have overtaken Sonoma, and for that matter, the entire county. The minimum wage is going to begin rising, and that’s simply a fact. However, the City of Sonoma continues to exhibit astonishing levels of income inequality. It does not have to wait for 2022 for its minimum wage to rise to $15/hour; in our opinion, the time to act is now.
Those at the bottom of the wage scale will be helped by minimum wage increases, but it’s going to be agonizingly slow. Next year it rises by fifty-cents, and the same amount the following year. Meanwhile, rents are increasing by 10% each year and the rental housing crisis keeps getting worse. We simply cannot afford to wait until 2022 to fully address the inequity of income in our community.
There are those, we’re sure, who will argue that now that the State has imposed new wage regulations, Sonoma does not need to do anything; we vigorously disagree. Proposals for new hotels and a burgeoning tourist economy mean jobs at the lowest end of the pay-scale will continue to increase. These workers often toil at two jobs just to make ends meet, doing the type of work most of us would refuse but without which our economy cannot function. To force these people to continue to live in poverty is moral callousness. It is also bad business. Moreover, to not address these worker’s housing and rental needs hides the transfer of the costs of our imbalanced economy onto other locales.
Again, we ask that the City Council take a stand and increase the minimum wage to $15 as soon as possible. We don’t think there’s need for a study, nor do we feel an increase needs to be gradual. By the time we get to 2022, the increase will already be too little, too late. As one of the wealthiest communities in the North Bay, we have the opportunity to display economic and moral courage; our citizens deserve it and our local economy will benefit from it.
SUN Editorial Board
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