'Living Wage' meeting set for Oct. 15

First District Supervisor Susan Gorin will be presented with a proposed “Living Wage” ordinance during a town hall meeting on Oct. 15. The public meeting, organized by a coalition of activists seeking to raise the minimum wage in the county to $15 an hour, will be held at 7 p.m. in the Sonoma Valley Grange Hall, 18627 Sonoma Highway.

“This proposal is similar to living wage ordinances already passed and adopted by the cities of Sonoma, Petaluma and Sebastopol,” said Marty Bennett, a history professor at Santa Rosa Junior College and co-chair of North Bay Jobs with Justice. “By approving this, the Board of Supervisors can provide the leadership and vision necessary to address the growing inequality and crisis of low-wage work in the county.”

The ordinance would increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and then tie that base wage to the annual Consumer Price Index. Bennett said the issue is both a moral and economic cause, saying that the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and the California minimum wage of $9 an hour was a lower ratio of earnings to profits then at any time in the last 50 years.

“Right now, more of our money is going into profits and business, while less is going towards wages and labor since the 1960s,” said Bennett. “The fruits of our labors are not being returned. Twenty-eight percent of the county population are the working poor and reside in families that receive less than $44,100 a year (with at least one family member working). Between 2008 and 2018 more than 50 percent of the jobs created in the county will pay less than $15 an hour.”

The proposed law would cover Sonoma County employees and county service contracts and entitle covered employees to 22 days off per year (12 paid and 10 unpaid).

The meeting will be moderated by Anna Pier, chair of La Luz Bilingual Center Board.

Among the panelists scheduled are Bennett, the Rev. Norman Cram of Jobs with Justice, and Supervisor Gorin.

If approved, the proposal would place Sonoma among the 33 other California cities and counties that have adopted similar measures. The counties of Sacramento, San Francisco and Santa Cruz have living wage ordinances, and two cities – San Francisco and San Jose – have gone even further, implementing citywide minimum wage laws covering most low-wage workers.

Currently, the estimated living wage rate in Sebastopol is $16.13 an hour; Sonoma is $15.76 an hour; and in Petaluma $15.32 an hour.

In each city the mandated hourly rate is lower if covered employers provide medical benefits worth at least $1.50 an hour.