Raising The Minimum Wage In Washington, D.C.
News: December 3: the D.C. Council voted unanimously to raise the minimum wage, incrementally, to $11.50 per hour by the year 2016.
Next Step before legislation becomes law: (How a Council bill becomes law).
The D.C. Council must hold a second vote. That is likely in late December 2013.
Then the Mayor will receive it. That is likely in January 2014. He has the power to veto it.
If 9 DC Council members vote for the bill, they can override (or nullify) the Mayor's veto and still pass the law.
Next, the U.S. Congress has a 30-day review period to block the law or let the law pass.
The bill becomes law if the Congress takes no action on the bill.
Current Minimum Wage:
- Federal: $7.25 per hour;
- D.C.: $8.25 per hour; $2.77 per hour base pay for tipped workers
- Montgomery County: $7.25 (The Council voted on November 26, to raise it to $11.50 per hour phased in over the course of four years until 2017).
- Prince Georges County: $7.25 (The County voted to approve an identical law on November 27, 2013 over the next three years).
- San Francisco: $10.55 per hour (the highest in the nation)
History:
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
- FLSA was passed in Depression-era 1938.
- It was passed to address the problem of decreased wages causing one-third of the population to be "ill-nourished, ill-clad, and ill-housed." (U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Education and Labor, Fair Labor Standards Act, Report to Accompany S. 2475, 75th Cong., 1st Sess., July 6, 1937, Report No. 884, p.1).
- The FLSA set the wage in 1938 at .25 per hour.
2013 Proposals in DC to raise the minimum wage:
DC Council
- Vincent Orange: originally proposed a bill to raise the minimum wage rate to $12.50 per hour; - $12.50 of federal FLSA wage plus $1, whichever is greater.
- Tommy Wells: has proposed legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.25 per hour by 2016.
- D.C. Council Committee on Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Committee voted, on November 25, 2013, to raise the minimum wage to $11.50 beginning in 2014 over the next three years.
Mayor Vincent Gray has proposed an increase to no more than $10 per hour.
INTERESTING FACTS:
Fifty years after Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech minimum wage is lower today than it was in 1963, according to some economists.
Minimum Wage in 1963 adjusted for inflation: $8.37 (See " A Dream Deferred: The Minimum Wage Was Higher in 1963 Than It Is Today, Richard (RJ) Eskow, Huffington Post (August 26, 2013).
Minimum wage if it had kept pace with the productivity growth of 1963; from $16.54 to $21.72.
Supporting a Family
- It takes 143 hours of minimum wage work in order to support a fair market apartment rental in Washington, D.C. (of about $1,180), according to some estimates.
- More than 7 million children would live in homes with higher income if the minimum wage were raised, according to some estimates.
- A minimum wage of 12.50 per hour, according to Councilmember Orange, would enable two minimum wage earners earning $52,000 per year to support their families without reliance upon public assistance.