Oct 1-2010:NWLP
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Oregon’s minimum wage
gets a 10-cent-an-hour boost
Oregon’s minimum wage will rise from
$8.40 to $8.50 an hour on Jan. 1, 2011.
The 10-cent increase mirrors a 1.15 per-
cent increase in the Consumer Price Index
since August 2009. Oregon’s minimum
wage rate has been $8.40 per hour since
Jan. 1, 2009.
Washington’s minimum wage is cur-
rently $8.55 per hour, while the federal
minimum wage is $7.25. Washington an-
nounced its adjustment on Sept. 30, after
this issue went to press.
“This modest increase is the result of a
slowly but steadily rising cost of living fac-
ing Oregon workers,” said Oregon Labor
Commissioner Brad Avakian said. “By
helping workers and their families preserve
their purchasing power in difficult times,
our strong minimum wage law also bene-
fits our local economies, where workers
spend most of their paychecks.”
Ballot Measure 25, enacted by Oregon
voters in 2002, requires a minimum wage
adjustment annually based on changes in
inflation as measured by the Consumer
Price Index (CPI). The commissioner of the
Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) is
directed to adjust the minimum wage for in-
flation every September, rounded to the
nearest five cents.
“We all know working Oregonians are
struggling,” said State Sen. Diane Rosen-
baum (D-Portland), who was a chief peti-
tioner for Ballot Measure 25. “Thousands
of Oregon families are fighting to keep food
on the table and a roof over their heads by
working full-time at minimum wage jobs,
and every cent counts in this economy.”
Oregon and Washington are two of 10
states, with Vermont, Ohio, Nevada, Mon-
tana, Missouri, Florida, Colorado, and Ari-
zona, that annually adjusts the minimum
wage based on inflation and the CPI.
The CPI, which is published by the
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, is
a measure of the average change in prices
over time in a fixed “market basket” of
goods and services, such as food, shelter,
medical care, transportation fares and other
goods and services people purchase for
day-to-day living.
A full-time minimum wage worker will
earn $17,680 under the new wage. If such a
worker is the sole breadwinner for a family
of three, that family still falls below the fed-
eral poverty line.
The minimum wage would need to be
greater than $8.80 to pull that three-person
family out of poverty, according to the Ore-
gon Center for Public Policy, a non-partisan
research institute that does research and
analysis on budget, tax and economic issues.
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
OCTOBER 1, 2010