Sonoma minimum wage ?to be $1-$2 more than state

The City of Sonoma moved a step closer on Monday to finalizing its citywide minimum wage increase – with the City Council continuing to fine tune an ordinance that would eventually place Sonoma’s lowest-paid employees at a full $1 above the state minimum at small businesses; and $2 above at larger businesses.

The council voted 4-1 at its May 20 meeting to accelerate its wage hikes beyond what the state legislature is already requiring in an effort to reflect the higher cost of living in Sonoma and throughout the North Bay. Councilmember David Cook was the lone “no” vote.

Sonoma resident Fred Allebach implored the council during the public-comment portion of the meeting to approve the largest increase on the table, a $15 an hour rate starting in 2020.

“It’s not worth it to shoot a 2- pointer,” Allebach said, at the same time the Golden State Warriors were finishing off a sweep of the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA conference finals. “When you can get a 3.”

In the end, the council swooshed what Allebach would consider a 2-pointer – settling on a wage-hike schedule slower than the “$15-by-20” pitched by local labor group North Bay Jobs with Justice – Sonoma’s plan would reach $15 three months later than the NBJJ plan – but ultimately end up around 40 cents higher than NBJJ’s wage schedule by 2023.

Marty Bennett, speaking on behalf of North Bay Jobs with Justice, said following the meeting his group was “disappointed” the council couldn’t support their push for $15 by 2020, “given the desperate need to make housing more affordable for low-income families.”

The state’s minimum wage separates businesses between large employers – those with more than 25 employees – and small employers, with the current wage at $12 for large employers and $11 for others. The state plan to raise the wage would bring the minimum to $15 for all employees in 2023.

The Sonoma City Council’s wage schedule, however, would bring the city’s minimum up quicker: to $13.50 for large businesses and $12.50 for small businesses on Jan. 1 of 2020 with incremental increases eventually bumping the Sonoma wage to $17 and $16, respectively, by Jan. 1 of 2023.

Each year after that, the wage would adjust to reflect rising costs of living as determined by the Pacific Region consumer price index. Last year that CPI was 2.6 percent; based on that, a $16 wage would see a wage increase of 42 cents.

Sonoma resident Ken Brown applauded the city’s drive for higher wages. “It’s the right thing to do,” said Brown.

While local businesses which pay lower wages stand to take a hit to their bottom lines with the city’s accelerated increase, few have voiced a staunch opposition publicly. Several local restaurant owners have called for the city to allow for a so-called “tip credit,” which would count wages from tips toward a server’s hourly wage, but City Attorney Jeff Walter has said that such a stipulation would violate state law.

Manuel Azevedo, owner of Tasca Tasca tapas restaurant on West Napa Street, told the council that a wage increase for his lower paid employees would create a ripple effect to the detriment of other employees most deserving of raises.

“As (the proposed ordinance) is now, I’ll have to look in the face of some of my employees and say, ‘Hey, I can’t afford to give you the raise that you deserve, or I’m going to have to let you go,’” said Azevedo.

Azevedo stressed that restaurateurs’ reluctance to support a minimum wage increase is not because “we don’t want to pay people, it’s because we run out of money.”

But Sonoma resident Tom Conlon said, “It’s time for a little tough love.”

“If proprietors can’t manage their business in such a way as to be able to afford to pay a fair wage, they really shouldn’t be in business here,” said Conlon.

Last week a group calling itself Concerned Restaurants of Sonoma – led by Sonoma resident Sondra Bernstein, who owns the Girl & the Fig – launched a change.org petition in an effort to demonstrate community support for the city to grant restaurants an exemption from having to pay the minimum wage to servers, bussers, hostesses, food runners and bartenders. At the time of the council meeting, the petition had around 650 signatures.

Councilmember Logan Harvey at the meeting broached the subject of exempting certain classes of employees – such as those who regularly receive tip income – from receiving the minimum wage. City Attorney Walter said that, based on his limited research, when state law allows deviations from wage regulations, it typically only does so to the benefit of the wage earner. “Most of the statutes in the labor code… are aimed at protecting the employee,” said Walter.

“What you’re doing is you’re actually penalizing tipped employees,” Walter continued, in regard to a potential exemption for restaurant servers. “You’re putting them in a separate class and making them earn less because they’re making tips.”

Harvey asked whether such an exemption would open the city up to risk of a lawsuit.

“Sure,” responded Walter.

Several restaurant owners voiced their frustration to the Index-Tribune following the meeting, saying city officials had given them mixed messages about the viability of an exemption for tipped employees.

John Toulze, a partner in the Girl & the Fig restaurant with Bernstein, told the Index-Tribune that on May 19, the night before the city council meeting, he and Councilmember Harvey met and reached an agreement in which Harvey would support a minimum wage exemption for restaurant servers and bartenders if Toulze would support an $15 wage by 2020, a goal Harvey had campaigned on in the fall city council election.

“Logan and I, I felt, came to an agreement Sunday that if we went to $15 by 2020, and accelerated, those monies wouldn’t go to the highest compensated people in our business (tipped employees), because those aren’t the most vulnerable people in the community,” said Toulze, who added that Mayor Amy Harrington had expressed her support for the plan Sunday night as well.

Toulze said representatives from such restaurants as the Red Grape, Sweet Scoops ice cream, Café La Haye, Della Santina, Tasca Tasca and Oso also expressed interest in the plan.

Toulze had come to the Monday meeting prepared to propose the new plan, but said Walter’s skepticism of the legality of any exemption put the kibosh to that. He said he felt like Harvey abandoned the agreement at the meeting without being fully informed as to the legality of an exemption for tipped employees.

“They dropped it like a hot rock and went in a completely different direction,” said Toulze, who described himself as feeling “played.”

“I know they’re politicians,” said Toulze. “But, man, they act like it.”

Bernstein, who initiated the change.org petition, said she still believes an employee exemption may in fact be legal and has engaged a labor attorney to look into it.

After the meeting, Harvey scoffed at the suggestion he’d been disingenuous in his last-minute efforts to seek a compromise ordinance. Harvey said he’d broached the proposed tipped-employees exemption plan with North Bay Jobs with Justice, but they responded with examples of state code and legal cases that showed ”exemptions are unequivocally illegal.”

Walter’s similar opinion only further convinced Harvey an exemption was a non-starter.

“If we pursued (an exemption) the city would get sued,” said Harvey. “That’s why I said on Monday: I’m not willing to put up taxpayer dollars to find out if this is legal.”

The Council will bring the wage back for consideration June 3.

For more information, check out the City of Sonoma website.

Contact Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.