Following the growing talk of stagnant wages and an ever-increasing cost of living, Seattle became the first city in the U.S. to bump up the minimum wage to $15 per hour, an increase from $9.47.
Other major cities along the West Coast followed suit. Last November, voters in San Francisco chose to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Los Angeles followed suit last May when Mayor Eric Garcetti signed a bill that would gradually increase the minimum wage from $9 per hour to $15 per hour over the next five years, despite the state minimum wage increasing from $9 per hour to $10 per hour on Jan. 1, 2016.
The talk of wage increase made its way to Santa Barbara County with a Labor Day rally in Santa Barbara. Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) organized the rally at Pershing Park on Sept. 7, attracting around 150 people.
At the rally, CAUSE Executive Director Maricela Morales called for a $15 per hour minimum wage in Santa Barbara. According to Morales, the drive to pass a living wage in Santa Barbara comes from the fact that the cost of living is going up and workers are struggling to pay for basic necessities, such as housing. Morales notes that the average cost for a two-bedroom apartment in the city is around $2,400 per month.
“Today’s minimum wage is not sufficient for working people to keep their head above water,” Morales said. “If you are working, then you should be earning a basic amount that allows you to cover the basics: rent, transportation, health care.”
The wage increase would affect many workers in the food service industry and those with jobs that support the tourism industry in Santa Barbara. The situation is a little different in Santa Maria, which has an economy that’s largely driven by agriculture and manufacturing, according to Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Director Dave Cross.
Manufacturing jobs wouldn’t be affected, Cross said, because most of them are paid more than minimum wage and receive benefits. They’re steady paying and tend to lead to career jobs, Cross said.
Cross has mixed feelings about increasing the minimum wage in Santa Maria. On one hand, Cross notes that minimum wage jobs are historically first-time jobs for young people and are not meant to last an entire career. However, 89 percent of those who would benefit from a federal minimum wage increase are age 20 or older, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Going on anecdotal evidence from many conversations with contractors in recent years, Cross said that economic factors like the Great Recession has driven wages down.
As far as agriculture goes, many farmworkers are paid a “piece rate,” or by the quantity of produce that’s picked, but sometimes they are paid minimum wage, which is why Morales said many farmworkers would benefit from a wage increase.
A city wage increase is not likely to impact many farmworkers, Morales said, but it’s still a cause for concern since many of them often experience wage theft.
In Santa Maria, Cross said the biggest impact would be on small retail businesses, which comprise up to 70 percent of the workforce in the city.
“Obviously, large employers can cover the cost of an increased minimum wage,” Cross said, adding that there is a fear that having to pay workers more money will drive prices up, or cause layoffs.
Didi Bracamonte-Maiden, owner of JayCee Trophy in Santa Maria, said it’s tough to survive as it is. She owns two shops, JayCee Trophy and Valley Awards in Orcutt, which sell items such as etched trophies, plaques, and letter jackets. She employs one part-time worker at her Santa Maria shop. She said a minimum wage increase would likely have a negative impact on her business.
“It would be hard for me to pay that,” Bracamonte-Maiden said. “It’s a hard enough for a small business just to even pay your taxes. It’s a lot for my two businesses.”
Morales denies that an increase in the minimum wage will cause layoffs or stifle hiring.
“It doesn’t play out like that because there’s a lot of factors that go into hiring and firing,” Morales said. She added that it’s also a myth to say that raising the minimum wage will increase prices.
Morales said her group chose to start the drive to increase the minimum wage in Santa Barbara, where she believes in a more positive outcome.
“It’s very much needed and doable in terms of the voter base, which is made of working young people,” Morales said.
Staff Writer David Minsky can be reached at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 17-24, 2015.