San Francisco, Other Bay Area Cities, Raise Minimum Wage
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Workers in a handful of Bay Area cities including San Francisco will be getting a pay raise starting Friday.
The minimum wage is being boosted from $12.25 to $13 an hour in San Francisco. Emeryville, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale also have minimum-wage ordinances that take effect July 1.
Thanks to Proposition J -- something San Francisco voters approved in 2014 -- minimum wage in the City is on its way to being $15 dollars an hour.
"We all feel for our working people because it's hard in our expensive city to survive unless you got a decent wage," San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said at a press event marking the increase.
"It's an honor to serve the city that supports some of the most aggressive and strongest labor protections in the U.S.," the city's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement Director Pat Mulligan said.
"It's also particularly fitting that we're celebrating this announcement of an increase in minimum wage throughout San Francisco as we lead into the Fourth of July Independence Day weekend because for many workers, a modest increase or any increase in their earnings or wage earnings represents a very real and well defined independence of its own," Mulligan said.
Paula Saulsby is a home care worker in San Francisco who will directly benefit from this raise.
"$15 an hour minimum wage increase will surely help me with my endeavors," said Saulsby.
Trish Baldwin co-owns Stonehouse Olive Oil in the Ferry Building. She's OK with the minimum wage being raised, but said the increase doesn't affect her businesses.
"Yeah, I think it's fine," said Baldwin. "San Francisco is an expensive place to live. We've always started people above the minimum wage anyway."
The Ferry Building has a lot of artisan and niche businesses that typically pay employees above minimum wage already.
Baldwin wondered how many businesses this rate hike will end up hurting.
"Our economy is doing really well, so I'm not sure who it's going to affect negatively," said Baldwin.
Critics argue that higher wages may force businesses to increase the costs of their products, give workers less hours or even lay some people off.
Step two goes into effect a year from Friday in San Francisco, when minimum wage will be $14 an hour. It will be raised to $15 an hour in 2018.