There were two big winners in San Jose following Election Day: Workers who will now earn a minimum of $10 an hour, and incumbent city councilman Rose Herrera.
The minimum wage hike, or Measure D, won with a resounding 59 percent of the vote. To see the final results, click here. The increase brings up the minimum wage by $2 an hour.
And Herrera, who was in a bitter battle with political novice Jimmy Nguyen for a seat in District 8, took a commanding lead on Tuesday with 55 percent of the vote. To see the full results,click here.
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed had been against the minimum wage, fearing that the extra costs would hurt small business owners, and thus, in turn, hurt the workers.
Early Wednesday outside his home, Reed said he wasn't against people earning a higher wage, but he "didn't want people to lose their jobs" because of the new burden on business owners. Still, he said, "the voters got the last word."
Statistics in other areas show that paying workers higher wages hadn't hurt the business community. For example, the two cities to recently boost their minimum wage, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, have actually enjoyed economic successes.
Since San Francisco raised its minimum wage to $10.24-an-hour at the start of 2012, unemployment has dropped .7 percent and 13,400 jobs have been added. Those statistics come courtesy of California’s Employment Development Department.
Likewise, in Washington, D.C., where minimum wage is hitched to the federal minimum page plus a dollar, the job numbers since the last raise in 2009 are equally as promising- an unemployment drop of 1.3 percent and some 22,500 jobs created, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Reed had backed Herrera, however, and he said early Wednesday morning that he was pleased she had won. She vowed in an interview Tuesday night to bring jobs to the city.
Reed called Herrera's a "big win for fiscal reform..It's a good day for the people of San Jose."
Local
In other South Bay election news, 56 percent of the voters in San Jose passed the Measure A sales tax, which calls for a one-eighth-cent sales tax increase for 10 years, which will raise about $50 million annually for county programs, such as Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
