Minimum wage going up for workers in Emeryville

Workers in Emeryville will be taking home bigger paychecks this summer as the City Council unanimously voted this week to raise the local minimum wage.

Set to take effect July 1, the ordinance mandates that workers at small businesses, defined in Emeryville as 55 or fewer employees, be paid $ 12.25 an hour, with incremental raises toward a $ 15- an- hour wage by 2018.

Businesses with more than 55 employees will be mandated to pay at least $ 14.44. By 2019, all workers in Emeryville must earn nearly $ 16 an hour, one of the highest minimum wages in the country.

“The primary goal of all this is to lift the floor of poverty for our lowestpaid workers,” said Mayor Ruth Atkin. “We have a tempered regional approach and consensus that includes business. This is a policy for the common good.”

Atkin said sticking points emerged during discussions over the last few months about exactly how a small business should be defined, with some — especially in the food and service industries — concerned about the original proposal, which defined small businesses as having 10 employees or fewer.

“A lot of people thought that number was too restrictive,” Atkin said. “And for cafes and restaurants that have lots of parttime workers, that makes sense. We pushed it to 55 to give them some room to grow.”

While Emeryville is not the biggest city in the Bay Area — it’s just over 2 square miles with a population of around 10,700 — a minimum wage hike means more there than in some other places, said Jennifer Lin, deputy director of the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy.

“Emeryville is the mall of the East Bay with Ikea and Home Depot and the other big- box stores,” Lin said. “It means something to show these big multinational corporations that they need to pay their workers a livable wage.”

The ordinance is due back before the City Council for a second reading on May 19, and is expected to pass easily.