Minority & Small
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Lowest Wage to Rise
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Wednesday • September 21. 2011
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Inflation boosts
minimum; small
businesses prepare
by M indy C( x > per
T he P ortland O bserver
Inflation will push up Oregon’s minimum
wage by 30 cents to $8.80 per hour in January.
"Safeguarding the wages of low-income
workers is especially critical in a tough
economy," said State Labor Commissioner
Brad Avakian, announcing the new mini­
mum wage rate last week. "Oregon’s economy
will not rebound if we allow 144,538 minimum
wage earners to fall behind inflation.”
The increase mirrors a 3.77 percent in­
crease in the Consumer Price Index since
August 2010.
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.
Avakian said thousands of Oregon fami­
lies are fighting to keep food on the table and
a roof over their heads by working full-time
at minimum wage jobs. He said the Oregon
Bureau of Labor and Industries is committed
to defending their wages.
The non-partisan Oregon Center for Pub­
lic Policy also called the increase "good for
workers and Oregon's economy.”
The group calculated that the increase
means an extra $624 a year for a family with
one full-time minimum wage worker.
photo by M indy C ooper TT he P ortland O bserver
Customer Juan Piedres and employee Louise Rafael (left) at Tuan’s 76 Auto
Service at Northeast 33rd and Killingsworth. Although the small business has
been operating for 10-years, owner Tuan Huynh Ba worries about the economy
and having the ability to make even small wage increases.
"It helps the lowest-paid workers make ends
meet, and it helps the economy when the workers
spend those extra dollars in local businesses,” said
Chuck Sheketoff, OCPP executive director.
But lingering anticipation has emerged for what
the affects the increase will have on small and local
businesses:
Gloria McM urtry, the owner
of the 16-year-old local Talking
Drum Bookstore in northeast
Portland, said an imm ediate in­
crease in expenditures for small
continued
on page 13
Top Ten Minimum Wage States
Washington
SS. 50
I Oregon
Nevada, Illinois, Conn.
E&aEHIH Vermont
S3S9HHH California, Massachusetts
Alaska
I Maine
MB
Obama on Fire over Jobs and Taxes
Appeals for
public support
dency struggling to address stub­
bornly high unemployment numbers
and dipping approval of his handling
of the economy.
( AP)— President Barack Obama is
The president announced his jobs
keeping up his appeal for public sup­ legislation to a joint session of Con­
port of his $447 billion proposal to gress two weeks ago and has since
boost jobs and consumer spending gone outside Washington to build a
by urging Americans to press Con­ case for its passage. He has been to
gress to pass the legislation. "No more Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina.
division or delay," he said.
"The No. 1 issue for the people I
Obama is focused on a message meet is how we can get back to a place
that has become central to a presi- where we’re creating good, middle-
class jobs that pay well and offer some
security," he said.
Obama's proposal would reduce
payroll taxes on workers, cut them in
half for most businesses and offer
incentives for employers to hire. It
would spend tens of billions of dollars
on new public works projects, extend
unemployment benefits for long-term
jobless and help states and localities
avoid layoffs of teachers and emer-
continued
on page 13