Minimum wage workers in San Francisco got a raise starting today.
Starting Jan. 1, 2012 the minimum a person can be paid is $10.24 an hour.
That gives San Francisco the title of highest minimum wage in the country and the only city to require pay above $10 an hour. For the record, a quick search on line found folks in Massachusetts make a minimum wage of $12 an hour, but only on Sunday and only for people who work in retail.
The old minimum wage was $9.92, so the increase reflects a 3.2 percent raise. Employers must pay the new amount for all work performed within city limits.
"This wage increase will help the City’s lowest paid workers to keep pace with inflation and also protect consumer spending of San Francisco’s working families, which will be a boost to our local economic recovery efforts,” said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said in December.
The city has no choice but to order the increase. A Minimum Wage Ordinance was passed by the voters in November 2003. It calls for annual rate adjustments based on the previous year’s Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose metropolitan area
Office of Labor Standards Enforcement Manager Donna Levitt said when adjusted for inflation, take-home pay around the country has fallen in the last year. "Workers in San Francisco are fortunate that our minimum wage rate is indexed to keep pace with inflation,” said Levitt.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and the California minimum wage is $8.00 per hour.
