Fremont minimum wage by 2020: $15 an hour

City wants to aid low-wage workers in high-cost area

Minimum wage in Fremont is on the rise.

The Fremont City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to increase minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020 for large employers and by 2021 for smaller ones.

Fremont joins a host of other Bay Area cities who have similarly decided to increase minimum wage within their borders ahead of the state’s timeline, citing the need to aid lowwage workers living in the costly region.

Currently, businesses that employ 26 or more people are required by California to pay workers $12 per hour, while those that employ 25 or fewer must pay $11 per hour.

Under Fremont’s new wage schedule, businesses with 26 or more employees in Fremont will be required to pay workers $13.50 per hour by July 1 of this year, and $15 per hour by July 1, 2020.

Employers with 25 or fewer employees will get one extra year to adapt to the changes, and must pay workers $15 per hour by July 1, 2021.

The council added an exemption, allowing nonprofits to continue to pay workers less than the increased minimum wage if the employee is age 21 or under. Those nonprofits would still need to comply with state wage requirements.

California’s minimum wage will increase to $15 per hour for large businesses by Jan. 1, 2022, and by Jan. 1, 2023 for small businesses.

Nine people spoke to the council to share their thoughts about the local increase, most of whom supported it.

Some expressed concern over the impact on small businesses, including Kathy Kimberlin, the president of the Centerville Business and Community Association.

“In the end, the consumer is going to pay for all of this. Or the employer is going to lay off employees, they’re going to have a smaller staff. Or in some cases, they’re going to close their business,” she said

She encouraged the council to vote for an ordinance that would slow the adoption rate for smaller businesses, which the council agreed to do.

“We hope that this push… speeding it ahead, is not for possible future votes from minimum wage voters for upcoming campaigns,” Kimberlin added. “That would be very disturbing to us.”

“This is a moral issue. We need to take care of people who are struggling,” Councilman Vinnie Bacon said.

“I know that small businesses are having trouble. The cost of lots of things are going up. We can’t control the price of beef or steel or other things here, but we can control the cost of labor,” he said.

“Small businesses are struggling, not just because they have to pay wages, but because of lots of different reasons, so I think we have to consider people’s livelihoods first.”

While Bacon, Councilwoman Jenny Kassan, Vice Mayor Raj Salwan and Mayor Lily Mei all said they supported an across the board increase that would require all employers to pay $15 per hour by 2020, others on the council wanted to give small businesses more time to adapt to the change.

Councilman Rick Jones said he supported slowing the adoption rate for small businesses, while Councilman Yang Shao and Councilwoman Teresa Keng both said they would have liked to delay the increases by one year for both sizes of businesses.

City staff said raising the minimum wage will cost Fremont more, both to comply with it, and to enforce the new law.

“Annual costs for park maintenance and certain other services” could increase by up to $50,000, a staff report said. Also, the city could end up paying about $500,000 more to recreation services employees, including seasonal summer camp employees, over the first two years when the new wages are in effect.

Enforcing the new local minimum wage could cost Fremont between $15,000 to $180,000 annually, depending on whether the city hires someone to do the job, or contracts the responsibility out to another agency.

The city had received more than 300 responses to a 2018 survey on the topic of raising the minimum wage faster than the state on the Fremont Open City Hall online forum, according to a staff report.

Overall, 62 percent of people who responded supported raising the minimum wage faster than California, while 38 percent preferred to stay on the state’s schedule.

The new ordinance will need to be confirmed with a second reading at a future council meeting before going into effect.

Five other Bay Area cities already reached the $15 per hour threshold in 2018, and nine more hit the mark this year, with two more in 2020.