|
 The proposal, which still must gain support from business-friendly
moderate Democrats, would make California the first to raise the
statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour - the highest in the nation -
while giving the governor the right to opt out if the economy
falters.
"I'm hoping that what happens in California will not just stay in
California but will be exported to the rest of the country," Brown
said at a news conference in Sacramento.
Raising the minimum wage has cropped up on many Democratic Party
candidates' agendas ahead of the November elections and the issue
could help mobilize Democratic voters to the polls.
According to the governor's office, 2.2 million Californians
currently earn the state minimum wage of $10 an hour.
 The idea of raising the minimum wage, which at the federal level has
remained at $7.25 an hour for more than six years, has been opposed
by Republicans and some business groups, who say it would harm small
businesses and strain government budgets.
If passed, Brown's plan would commit the state, home to one of the
world's biggest economies, to raising the minimum wage to $15 an
hour by 2022 for large businesses and 2023 for smaller firms.
It would also head off a pair of competing ballot initiatives
championed by labor leaders to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour
without allowing the governor to halt increases in bad times, a
deal-breaker for Brown.
But passage of the proposal is not guaranteed without support from
more moderate members of the Democrat-controlled legislature. Absent
from the press conference was Anthony Rendon, speaker of the state
Assembly, where the bill was expected to face opposition.
[to top of second column] |
"This deal was placed on my desk over the weekend," said Rendon, who
supports the measure but said he was not involved in negotiations
over it. "I don't know how many folks are in support of the bill or
how many are against it."
Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has
called for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.
Economic consultant Christopher Thornberg, founding partner at
Beacon Economics, said increasing the minimum wage would not reduce
poverty because low paid workers were most at risk of losing their
jobs when employers cut positions.
"These are the people that businesses will say, 'If I’m going to pay
$15 bucks an hour, I’m not going to hire them,'" Thornberg said.
Fourteen states and several cities began 2016 with minimum wage
increases, typically phasing in raises that will ultimately take
them to between $10 and $15 an hour.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein, Robin Respaut and Dan Whitcomb;
Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sara Catania, Alan Crosby and
Mary Milliken)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
