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Updated: San Jose City Council Approves $15/Hour Minimum Wage Hike By January 1, 2019


Yesterday, I had pointed readers to a pending vote by the San Jose City Council in regard to whether to accelerate a minimum wake hike for workers in the city.  While other cities in Santa Clara County had approved measures for an accelerated minimum wage hike (ahead of the statewide $15/hour minimum wage rate set to take effect in 2022), there was some mystery as to whether San Jose would follow suit.  While there had been several competing proposals to raise the minimum wage rate to $15/hour by January 1, 2019 or July 1, 2019, there was no guarantee the City Council would approve any measure.

It turns out, the City Council approved the more ambitious measure and approved a plan to raise the minimum wage rate for workers in the city to $15/hour by January 1, 2019.  Note, this wage hike will be phased in as follows:  $12/hour in 2017, $13.50/hour in 2018, and $15/hour in 2019.  An automatic cost of living increase will go into effect every year thereafter.  In addition, this minimum wage increase is expected to impact nearly 115,000 workers in the city.  

As I mentioned yesterday, this is certainly a win for hourly workers in San Jose.  I think it was more likely than not that the $15/hour wage rate would go into effect before 2022 (given that other cities in Santa Clara County had pushed for an accelerated timeframe), but it was not a sure thing given that several proposals had a wide range of support and there was no guarantee that any one proposal would garner enough support to pass.


For additional information:  http://www.ktvu.com/news/217790942-story

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