Study from the civic group contends current wage floor allows poverty to proliferate.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Study from the Portland City Club contends current wage floor allows poverty to proliferate.
The report also called for individual cities to set their own minimum wages to account for cost of living.
The City Club members don’t offer a specific wage recommendation for Portland but said based on the city’s own data that a $12-an-hour minimum “would still generate less than half” of Portland’s median household income for a single person.
They recommend that the city immediately and bring together business, labor and citizen groups to determine an appropriate minimum wage in Portland.
“The minimum wage is an expression of equality, dignity, and belief in the fundamental right 33 of Portland’s workers to expect meaningful compensation for their labor,” the report says.
(SOURCE: OregonLive.com)
The civic group will address the study at their next meeting on Nov. 6.
“The cost of living around Oregon varies significantly, and is much higher in Portland than other parts of the state. For this reason, it does not make sense to insist on a single minimum wage for the entire state,” the committee wrote in its report.
The committee “concluded that a state law that prohibits communities from increasing their minimum wage above the state rate – called preemption – prevents them from addressing the needs of residents living at the lower end of the economic spectrum,” members wrote.
(SOURCE: Portland Business Journal)
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