Restaurant industry lobbies for minimum wage change
The Oregon AFL-CIO opposes a House bill that would eliminate yearly adjustments for inflation
Tuesday, January 18, 2005CHARLES E. BEGGS
SALEM -- The Oregon Restaurant Association is renewing efforts to persuade lawmakers to scrap the yearly inflation adjustment to the state's minimum wage, now the second-highest in the nation.
House Majority Leader Wayne Scott, R-Canby, said Monday in an interview that Oregon has had one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation for more than three years.
"Do the math," Scott said, blaming the state's relatively high minimum wage for its relatively low number of new jobs.
He has introduced a bill -- at the restaurant group's request -- to do away with the annual cost-of-living adjustment to the wage floor that voters passed in 2002.
Oregon's minimum wage increased to $7.25 an hour this month. It is second only to the $7.35-an-hour minimum in Washington, which also adjusts the pay floor for cost-of-living changes.
"Unemployment rises when the minimum wage is indexed" to reflect inflation, Scott said.
The Oregon AFL-CIO, pledging to fight House Bill 2331, said Oregon's hospitality industry employment increased in 2003 despite a rise in the minimum wage that year of 40 cents an hour.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tim Nesbitt said that low-wage jobs generally are growing faster than other employment and that lawmakers shouldn't tinker with voter-approved increases.
"Voters passed the minimum-wage increase so that Oregonians that work full time would not have to live in poverty," Nesbitt said. "We should keep faith with the voters and honor that commitment". |
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