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Measure would push min wage to $13

Proposed hikes would make San Diego’s minimum wage among the highest in the nation

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The city of San Diego’s minimum wage would increase to $13.09 an hour during the next three years under a proposal unveiled Wednesday by City Council President Todd Gloria.

The proposed hikes, which would make San Diego’s minimum wage among the highest in the nation, would be part of a measure that Gloria and other supporters plan to place on the November ballot. The measure would also require employers to give workers five paid sick days a year.

Supporters, including several labor unions and social advocacy groups, say the measure would strengthen San Diego’s economy by boosting purchasing power for many thousands of low-income workers. Another goal is providing full-time, low-wage workers enough income to afford a place to live and other basics.

Critics, including the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Kevin Faulconer, have expressed concern that having a higher minimum wage than what the state requires could drive businesses away from San Diego and cripple those that stay, particularly nonprofits and smaller businesses.

Gloria described Wednesday’s proposal, which was the first time he’s attached specific numbers to his campaign for a higher minimum wage, as a starting point for debate about the details of the possible ballot measure.

“I welcome additional dialogue and further feedback,” Gloria, a Democrat, said during a City Hall press conference.

The proposal would put San Diego’s minimum wage significantly above what the state requires, which is $8 an hour but will rise to $9 on July 1 and $10 in 2016.

Under the proposal Gloria unveiled, San Diego’s minimum wage would rise to $11.09 in July 2015, $12.09 in July 2016 and $13.09 in July 2017. Further increases would be indexed to inflation starting in January 2018.

San Francisco has the highest big-city minimum wage in the nation, at $10.74 an hour. In Seattle, there’s a push to raise it to $15.

Gloria said the increases would help many people avoid living paycheck-to-paycheck in fear.

“This measure would positively impact hundreds of thousands of San Diegans,” Gloria said. “It would transform the low-wage service economy into a workforce that strengthens our local economy.”

Faulconer, a Republican, said the proposal could hurt San Diego.

“I am concerned about any proposal that puts our city at a competitive disadvantage against other cities, which can hurt job growth and San Diego working families,” Faulconer said.

Restaurants and hotels have been cited as the businesses most vulnerable to minimum wage hikes because their employees typically receive relatively low pay.

Critics also predict a minimum wage hike would accelerate inflation by prompting employers to raise prices, but Gloria has rejected requests for an independent analysis of the proposal before it goes on the ballot.

Jerry Sanders, the chamber’s chief executive, said Wednesday that the wage hikes would actually hurt workers overall by curbing job growth.

Gloria, however, said the proposal would boost San Diego’s economy and help local merchants.

“To those who fear what this will to do their businesses, please remember that these additional wages will be spent by workers on necessities like food and services,” he said. “It will go right back into the San Diego economy.”

He cited statistics compiled by the Center on Policy Initiatives, a nonprofit think tank that advocates for workers, that show the hikes would give local employees approximately $580 million more per year to spend.

The proposal would boost wages for an estimated 200,000 workers within the city and raise the annual incomes of those workers an average of $2,800, according to the center’s data.

One such worker is Maribel Sosa, a longtime Burger King employee who earns $8 an hour and struggles each month to cover the $800 rent she pays for her one-bedroom apartment in Sherman Heights.

“I want to save money to go to college but I never have anything extra,” said Sosa, a 29-year-old single mother raising two young girls. “I sleep in the living room because my daughters sleep in the bedroom.”

Lisette Orosco, a 25-year-old legal assistant in Sorrento Valley, said the $12 an hour she earns doesn’t leave her money for anything but the basics. While it would take a few years for the proposal to affect her, Orosco said any boost would mean a lot to her and the two children she’s raising alone.

“We pretty much only sit at home because I can’t afford anything more,” she said, adding that her children wear mostly hand-me-down clothes from friends. “I need all the help I can get.”

Sosa and Orosco are among the 38 percent of county residents that a recent study by the Center on Policy Initiatives determined have trouble meeting basic needs.

That study found that $13.09 an hour — the amount Gloria chose as a three-year-goal — is the minimum a person must make to pay for the basics in San Diego, where housing costs are among the highest in the nation.

Despite the large number of people struggling. Harry Schwartz, who owns a downtown San Diego Ace Hardware store, said the increases Gloria is proposing are too large.

“As a small business owner, I recognize that the current minimum wage is too low and has to go up,” said Schwartz, who has 18 employees. “My concerns are that the numbers being talked about right now, even though we might not end up there, are very significant.”

He said the proposal would affect more than just the lowest-paid workers, because giving them raises would prompt employees making more to seek similar hikes in order to keep pace.

“It’s not just about raising 200,000 people up to the poverty level, but hundreds of thousands or more will need raises to stay where they were,” he said.

Schwartz said his hardware store can’t function with fewer workers, so Gloria’s proposal would force him to either raise prices, slash advertising or go out of business.

Ann Kinner, owner of Seabreeze Books and Charts in Point Loma, said the wage hikes would prevent her from hiring the additional employees she needs.

“I can’t automatically increase my sales to pay for somebody’s misguided idea,” she said.

Gloria’s proposal is scheduled to be discussed Wednesday by the council’s Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

A majority of the City Council, which has six Democrats and three Republicans, must approve the proposal by August for it to appear on the ballot in November. Ballot measures aren’t subject to Mayor Faulconer’s veto power, city officials said.

david.garrick@utsandiego.com (619) 269-8906 @UTDavidGarrick

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