Title
Creating Chapter 224 of the Legislative Code to implement a City minimum wage.
Body
The Council of the City of Saint Paul Does hereby ordain:
Section 1
WHEREAS, although since the 1970s, the United States Congress, and the Minnesota Legislature have increased the federal and state minimum wages every decade, the effective full minimum wage rate in Minnesota is still not as high as the minimum wage in 1968, when controlled for the cost of living; and
WHEREAS, increased costs of living, rising inflation and a transforming economy have forced Saint Paul workers and families to do more with less. A full-time worker earning the state-mandated minimum wage of nine dollars and sixty-five cents ($9.65) per hour for large employers would make an annual salary that is approximately five thousand ($5,000.00) below the poverty level for a family of four (4). A minimum wage of twelve dollars ($12.00) per hour in Saint Paul would be comparable to the federal minimum wage paid in the late 1960s. Inaction by the federal and state governments on the minimum wage has contributed to the struggle of tens of thousands of low wage workers in the city who struggle to meet their most basic needs; and
WHEREAS, a living wage is defined as the income necessary for workers to meet their basic needs, and the living wage in Ramsey County for a single person is sixteen dollars and twenty-three cents ($16.23) per hour; and
WHEREAS, the living wage for a household of two (2) adults and one (1) child, with one adult working full-time and the other working part-time, is twenty dollars and thirty-four cents ($20.34) per hour; and
WHEREAS, Saint Paul has the highest percentage of residents living in poverty of any metro city with a population over one thousand (1,000) in the state, and over sixty-two thousand (62,000) Saint Paul residents have incomes below the federal poverty level; and
WHEREAS, the largest share of Saint Paul residents, both live and work in Saint Paul; and
WHER...
Click here for full text