City to consider 2018 minimum wage increase

Meeting begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday

The Lindsay City Council will consider Tuesday adoption of the 2018 salary schedule as adjusted for minimum wage increase.

In 2016, the state legislature and governor approved and adopted SB 3 (Leno), which results in stepped increases to the minimum wage in California, said Bret Harmon, the city’s finance director. Harmon said the minimum wage the city paid in 2017 was 50 cents higher than it paid in 2016.

Beginning in 2018 and ending in 2022, Harmon said the minimum wage the city pays increased or will increase by $1 per year until it reaches $15 per hour. Harmon said the governor may temporarily delay one year’s increase for one year if certain conditions exist.

After the state minimum wage reaches $15 an hour for all employees, Harmon said the rate will be adjusted annually for inflation based on the national consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W). Harmon noted, however, that the minimum wage cannot be lowered even if there is a negative CPI. He said the highest raise allowed in any one year is 3.5 percent.

Harmon said the governor will also no longer be able to pause a scheduled increase, and noted that the first adjusted increases may be accelerated if the adjusted CPIW exceeds 7 percent in that first year.

Harmon said the city complied with the adjustment in 2017. He said the purpose of the resolution is to comply with the increase in 2018, in which the minimum wage for

employers with 26 employees or more is set at $11 an hour.

The minimum wage is set to increase to $12 an hour by Jan. 1, 2019, to $13 an hour in 2020, $14 in 2021 and $15 on Jan. 1, 2022.

Harmon said a 50 cent per hour increase in minimum

wage from 2017 to 2018 is a 5 percent increase. Harmon said this means the city would need to reduce hours of minimum wage employees by 5 percent to stay cost neutral. Staying cost neutral, Harmon said, will have an impact on services if the city does

not identify a means to reduce other costs to pay for the minimum wage increase.

Harmon said the only positions impacted by the minimum wage change in the City of Lindsay include the Team Member 1 and Finance Clerk positions.