During college, every quarter, nickel and dime counts for students. If state Rep. Bill Morrisette, D-Springfield, succeeds in passing a bill that ties minimum wage to inflation, it will mean more precious cash for working students.
While inflation drove up prices during the past two years, minimum wage in Oregon hasn’t gone up in response. If Morrisette’s bill passes, the state Labor Commissioner would adjust the minimum wage every year in September based on changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Oregon. New wages would go into effect every January.
“If we don’t index minimum wage [with the CPI], we’re going to fall behind,” Morrisette said. “My philosophy is that it is good business to pay people enough to participate in the economy.”
Because the last minimum wage increase was in 1999, the bill asks for the Labor Commissioner to base next September’s calculations on the CPI increase since Jan. 1, 1999. Inflation since then has risen approximately 6 percent, which would result in minimum wage being set at $6.87. If the CPI continues to increase annually at about 3 percent, the minimum wage would continue to increase 20 to 25 cents annually.
“If people had a family wage job ­­ $17 an hour for a four-person family ­­ they would be paying taxes back into the system,” Morrisette said. “The reason businesses can say we don’t need to raise minimum wage is that they know the government has assistance programs and can step in.”
If the bill passes, the increase would mainly benefit minimum-wage employees, but it could also push up the wages of other workers.
At the University level, the increase would affect salaries of students with work-study positions and could also have an effect on classified staff.
“The last increase in minimum wage pushed up the bottom of [salaries for] the classified staff, which is currently at $7.15 an hour,” said Christine Lonigan, University human resources employment manager. “It would cost the University more with the increase.”
Though the increase could result in more money for individual students, it could also reduce the number of jobs, depending on how departments absorb the increase, Lonigan said.
But some students say that every increase would help when living on an already tight budget.
“At the University, they don’t let you work more than 20 hours a week and you can’t live off of that,” said junior Clara Barnes, a political science and economics major who works at the Buzz Coffeehouse. “[The increase] would help a lot because minimum wage isn’t very much.”
The bill is currently facing a committee hearing in the state House of Representatives. If it makes it to the floor, there is a good chance of it passing, Morrisette said.
“We’re asking for something relatively small and simple,” Morrisette said. “It’s something we have to keep working on, even if we’re not sure it’s going to succeed.”