Employees working on behalf of the City of Portland did not get raises this year.
While the “fair wage” of $9.50 an hour was not adjusted this year for people working on behalf of the City of Portland, city commissioners and other municipal employees got a 2.8 percent cost-of-living increase.
That discrepancy, WW has learned, is the result of a decision in May from the City’s Office of Management and Finance to save money by freezing Portland’s “fair wage” at $9.50 an hour, last year’s threshold. But the edict wasn’t widely known until July, when OMF wrote to all City bureau directors, telling them, “there are not sufficient funds available to authorize an adjustment” to the so-called fair wage this year.
That marks the first time since 2003 the City has failed to raise the fair wage, which is the minimum pay for hundreds of employees working for the City via outside vendors with City contracts. Those employees include 120 ushers, ticket takers and stadium workers at PGE Park, which is about to undergo a multimillion-dollar face-lift in part with public funding.
Read the full story at Willamette Week.
