Raise the Minimum Wage

At its current $3.35 an hour, the minimum wage penalizes poor people who are willing to work for a living. A single adult can barely survive on that level of pay. Parents trying to provide for growing children can do better on welfare. It has been six years now since Congress adjusted the minimum wage to stop some of the erosion of inflation, and it is in the process of trying once again. But if for some reason Washington fails to raise the minimum, California should do so on its own.

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that would increase the wage in steps to $4.65 per hour by 1990. That increase, which is fair though not generous, would be enough to boost small families above the poverty level. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), also would make future increases automatic, tying raises in the minimum wage to 50% of the average pay of private employees who are neither supervisors nor farm workers.

On the House side, Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Los Angeles) has sponsored a similar measure. The chances of approval look promising, although a vote is not expected until September. The determination of the Democrats, however, is not likely to persuade President Reagan of the rightness of their cause.

The President long has opposed a higher minimum wage. He argues, as do many people in business, that an increase would lead to a tightening of the labor force, causing unemployment and triggering inflation. Those arguments, made every time Congress has tried to increase the rate, may have some validity in the case of small employers operating on a thin margin. But the basic question is fairness to employees who work at minimum wages without a prospect of increases unless government acts.

But a presidential veto need not settle the question--at least for California. Federal law allows states to set wages that are higher than the national minimum. Six states have done so. California, a wealthy state, should join them.

A bill sponsored by Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Hawthorne) would raise the minimum wage to $5 by 1990. A measure sponsored by Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) would boost the wage to $4.25 per hour. The California Legislature should keep the measures--and the hopes of the state’s poor workers--alive.

Actually, workers getting only the minimum wage are not entirely dependent on the Legislature, either. The Industrial Welfare Commission evaluates the minimum wage every two years. The five-member board, appointed by the governor, is preparing to consider the wage late this month, though no action is expected until October. A raise certainly is in order.

Since the last raise in the minimum wage in 1981, inflation has eroded 27% of the buying power of these workers’ paychecks. They earn just under $7,000 a year, assuming that they miss no days of work and take no vacations.

People who are willing to work, even when the paycheck is meager, deserve a decent wage, and if Washington does not respond, California must.