What is the current minimum wage?

As of January 1, 2005, the minimum wage in Oregon is $7.25.

How much does the minimum wage increase every year?

As part of the minimum wage initiative passed by voters in 2002, the minimum wage is tied to a cost of living index. (The U.S. City Average Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for All Items.) That means that like most other workers, people who count on minimum wage will receive a fair raise every year. In January of 2005, the minimum wage went from $7.05 per hour to $7.25. For more information, click here.

What effect does the minimum wage have on our economy?

Dollar for dollar, there is no better stimulas for the economy than an increase in the minimum wage. When lower wage workers have more money, they spend it in the local economy.

And there is no evidence that Oregon's minimum wage has hurt job growth. An October 2004 study in Oregon Labor Trends  published by the Employment Department has tracked job growth in all employment sectors since June 2003 - right after the first minimum wage increase as Measure 25. According to the study, low-wage jobs in Oregon are growing faster than other wage levels. In fact, low-wage jobs grew by 3% while the other sectors grew by only 2%.

And according to the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., the hospitality industry, which employs the largest number of minimum wage workers, added (yes, added) 1,300 jobs in Oregon after the minimum wage increased in 2003, even while the rest of the state was losing jobs. And before Oregon voters passed the minimum wage increase, the wage stayed stagnant, but industry employment dropped. For example, in 2000-2002, hospitality employment dropped by 1.5%. Also, as the Oregon Restaurant Association claims that our minimum wage rate means lost jobs, the their parent organization, the National Restaurant Association predicts a 4.8% growth in Oregon state hospitality establishments in 2005.

The voters passed the minimum wage in 2002. Why does the state legislature think they have any right to reduce it?

Good question. The Oregon Restaurant Association is a powerful special interest that gives a lot of money to candidates. That is why it will take an equally powerful grassroots campaign to protect the will of the voters that no one who works in Oregon should have to do it for poverty wages.

In what ways is Oregon’s minimum wage under attack in this legislative session?

The Oregon Restaurant Association is taking three approaches. Create a "tip credit," implement a "training wage," and freeze the cost of living increases for minimum wage workers. The three attacks are outlined below.

Do these bills have any chance of passing?

We are concerned. The tight budget has made this a difficult session and anything can happen in the end game to approve a budget. It is entirely possible that in the "end game" of the legislature when the intense back and forth negotiations happen, that some key lawmakers may be willing to trade a vote against the minimum wage as a trade on some of their pet bills. Unless we all tell our lawmakers minimum wage is NOT NEGOTIABLE, they may think no one will notice if they rollover Oregon’s minimum wage workers.

Here is the three-pronged attack strategy to reduce the minimum wage:

1. Implement a Tip Credit

"I work for minimum wage. It is beyond me that anyone could think that I am making too much money."

Portland waiter

Tip credit bills create a lower wage for workers who receive tips. There are several bills that have been introduced in the legislature that would implement a tip credit. One proposal would require that tipped employees be paid $6.90 per hour, which is 40 cents less an hour than the current minimum wage and does not offer any provision to increase that wage with the cost of living index.

The Oregon Restaurant Association puts forth an argument that because they have to pay "front of the house" employees the full minimum wage, they aren’t able to pay "back of the house," employees more to even things out. In other words, they claim that if wait staff make less money, the restaurants will be able to pay dishwashers and other people who don’t receive tips more money.

There are several things wrong with this argument:

• All a tip credit does is put money in the pocket of the restaurant owner. There is no evidence that in the states that have tip credit, the back of the house workers make more money. If there was, the Restaurant Association would use it. Instead, they use anecdotes and quotes from restaurant owners who swear the only thing keeping them from giving their dishwashers a raise is that the wait staff makes too much money.
• People that have worked in other states with a tip credit report that not only do the owners keep the extra money, tips are reduced because wait staff can be hired at bargain prices - encouraging restaurants to overstaff.  
• It ignores the very common practice of the wait staff sharing their tips with the other workers.
• The tip credit also pretends that every single minute a tipped employee is earning tips. Anyone who has worked in a restaurant knows how much side work there is and that there is slow time. That’s time when tipped workers would be getting ripped off if Oregon had a tip credit.

2. Create a Training Wage

There are several "training wage" bills pending in the legislature. Some create a lowered wage for people who are new to an employer. Some last for 90 days, some an entire year. The training wage is grossly unfair, especially to seasonal workers who sometimes work for an employer for only a summer, but may have years of experience in the industry.

Other training wage bills create a lowered wage for people who are under 18 years old or even under 21 years old. One bill even reduces minimum wage to $5.15 for the first year. These bills hurt students who are working their way through school or trying to save for their future. There is no reason to believe that an 18-year-old worker is any less skilled than a 19-year-old. Additionally, they wipe out any experience a worker has gained at prior jobs. It is just a way for employers to nickel and dime workers.

3. Freeze the Cost of Living Increase

These bills eliminate the voter passed cost of living increase for minimum wage workers. If a cost of living freeze was in effect in 2002 when voters passed the minimum wage bill, the current wage would be stuck at $6.90 per hour. That is not what the voters wanted. Here is the full text of Measure 25, the minimum wage initiative:

INCREASES OREGON MINIMUM WAGE TO $6.90 IN 2003; INCREASES FOR INFLATION IN FUTURE YEARS

The voters knew what they were doing and the Oregon Restaurant Association has no right to reverse their will.

What should I do to protect Oregon's minimum wage?

1. Contact your state representatives today. If you are a minimum wage worker, tell them how much you count on this wage and the annual increases. Tell them that you will not stand for any rollbacks on this fundamental Oregon value: that no one who works full-time should be forced to live in poverty.
2. Write to your local newspapers and tell them how important the minimum wage is to you personally and to Oregon.
3. Tell your friends, family and neighbors about the attack on minimum wage. It has often been said that things are different in Oregon - that things are better. That's why we all live here and why we love it as fiercely as we do. Our minimum wage is a declaration that we value work and we value the people who do it and that no one in Oregon who works full time should be forced to live in poverty. That's why Oregonians came together to pass the minimum wage increase in 2002, and that is worth defending.