Hayward delays minimum wage increases for a year due to virus

City officials say implementing salary jump in July would burden small-business owners

Because of the economic hardship the coronavirus pandemic is wreaking on businesses, the Hayward City Council has decided against forcing employers to raise the minimum hourly wage to $15 on July 1.

At its meeting Tuesday night, the council agreed that asking business owners to pay more in salaries when they’re struggling to operate will just make things worse.

The council directed staffers to return April 21 with a revised minimum wage ordinance that postpones the raises to July 1, 2021.

“They are going to have to potentially lay off workers,” Councilman Mark Salinas said about the pandemic and how it’s impacting small businesses. “And they certainly do not want to do that.”

In February, the council decided that employers with 26 or more workers must pay them at least $15 an hour and those with fewer must raise the pay to $14.

The city’s plan also called for the minimum wage to increase annually every July 1 based on the Consumer

Price Index.

Kim Huggett, president of the Hayward Chamber of Commerce, urged the council to delay the pay increases.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our local community,” Councilman Francisco Zermeno said.

Like some other Bay Area cities, Hayward set the minimum wage bar higher than what the state requires.

In April 2016, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that called for the minimum wage statewide to reach $15 an hour by 2023.

Under the state’s plan, pay raises will be linked to inflation and reflect the CPI, up to 3.5% annually.

As of Jan. 1, small businesses had to pay employees at least $12 an hour and big businesses $13 unless they were located in cities with accelerated minimum wage timetables.

Local governments still have the option of adopting their own minimum wage rules as long as the amounts exceed what the state requires.

“I have seen a significant impact on businesses in Hayward,” Councilwoman Elisa Marquez said about the virus. “What I am trying to do is preserve jobs in Hayward.”

Councilwoman Aisha Wahab cast the lone no vote. “I am very, very supportive of the $15 minimum wage and will continue to be so,” she said.

On Tuesday, Mayor Barbara Halliday and City Manager Kelly McAdoo were the only ones in the council chambers at City Hall. The chambers was closed to the general public because of the statewide shelter-in-place order, although people could call or email comments. Council members weighed in remotely via teleconference.

Some cities in Alameda County already have adopted minimum wage ordinances ahead of the state deadline of 2023.

The minimum wage in Alameda is now $13.50 per hour and will jump to $15 by July. In Berkeley, it’s $15.59, and in Emeryville the figure is $16.30.

The wage in Fremont ranges from $11 to $13.50 depending on a business’ number of employees and will rise to $15 for everyone by 2021. In Oakland, it’s $13.80, and in San Leandro it’s $14.

According to a city of Hayward report, there are an estimated 23,814 minimum wage jobs in the city, about 5,116 of them filled by Hayward residents.

“I absolutely understand where the desire for $15 comes from and I absolutely acknowledge that that’s not a living wage in the Bay Area, especially as housing costs are astronomical,” Councilwoman Sara Sara Laminin said before Tuesday’s vote. “There’s a lot to that complexity. None of that was helped by COVID (19). It also was not created by COVID (19).”