With the cost of living continuing to soar across the Bay Area, a coalition in Alameda County is trying to persuade residents to mandate higher wages for the workers who struggle most.
The Living Wage for All campaign announced Thursday at Understory Oakland in Fruitvale that they are collecting signatures to put two measures on the ballot in Oakland and Alameda County in November.
The measures would require businesses with more than 100 employees and more than $1 million in revenue to increase the minimum wage to $30 by 2030. Smaller businesses would have until 2035 and 2037 to apply those wages. The county initiative would apply to unincorporated parts of the county.
Oakland voters established a citywide minimum wage in 2014 by passing Measure FF, which also required employers to provide workers with sick leave. Under Measure FF, the city’s minimum was is currently $17.34, although there are certain exceptions to this rule: some hotel workers in the city make a slightly higher wage, thanks to Measure Z, and state law now requires some fast food workers to make $20 an hour. Oakland voters established the hotel minimum wage law in 2018, which also led to the creation of the city’s Department of Workplace and Employment Standards.
However, wages in the Bay Area aren’t keeping up with the skyrocketing cost of living, said Zach Norris, co-executive director of the Black Organizing Project.
“In that gap is human suffering,” Norris said at the press conference, citing examples of Black people being pushed out of the Bay Area, teachers sleeping in cars, women suffering through sexual harassment in restaurants to maintain an income.
Miriam Medellín Myers, lead organizer for Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, which supports migrant low-wage workers, said the Oakland members of her group are paid the lowest minimum wage in the entire Bay Area, forcing many to work multiple jobs.
“Our members are unhoused or housing insecure simply because the wages aren’t high enough,” she said. “$30 an hour does not fully meet the cost of living for our families, but we believe that it’s the start of a better future for working class families.”
Who’s behind the campaign to raise Oakland’s minimum wage?
One of the organizations behind the campaign is One Fair Wage, a national group that previously fought to increase the minimum wage to $15. That hourly target has been eclipsed by years of rising inflation, which has led to an affordability crisis for many workers, according to Saru Jayaraman, the president of One Fair Wage.
According to Jayaraman, one person in a two-parent two-child household in the Bay Area needs at least $44 an hour to support themselves and their family. Last year, her organization helped launch a campaign called “A Living Wage For All,” which effectively replaced the longstanding effort to increase the minimum wage to $15. The new campaign’s objective is to increase the minimum wage to $25 across the country, and $30 in areas like Oakland where the cost of living is especially high. Similar campaigns have been building in New York and Los Angeles.
“Alameda County is not alone, but Alameda County is going to be the first to pass a living wage for all in the country,” Jayaraman said.
To get employers on board, Jayaraman said organizers have been meeting with small businesses to learn what it would take to help them meet a new higher minimum wage. Some potential solutions have included tax credits, support with workers compensation, and help with technical issues.
“It can be done without businesses closing,” she said. “We’re here to tell you, we’ve done the economic analysis, we’ve met with the small businesses, we’ve created the supports to make sure they can get there.”
Organizers claim there is strong support for these initiatives. Jayaraman said polling done by Lake Research Partners shows that more than 70% of Alameda County voters support gradually raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour.
Not everyone will be a fan of these initiatives. The pandemic hit Oakland businesses hard, and the city is struggling with a persistently high vacancy rate for commercial buildings. The City Council recently endorsed putting a measure on the ballot that would give small businesses a tax break.
Kavitha Iyengar, a representative for United Auto Workers Region 6, said the campaign is preparing for a fight, noting that “businesses and forces from outside Oakland and Alameda County are going to unite to try to beat us.”
Greg Hodge, president of the Brotherhood of Elders Network, noted that the push to increase minimum wages dates back to at least the Poor People’s Campaign, a 1968 effort organized by Martin Luther King Jr. to demand living wages for people, and was part of the Black Panther Party’s 10 point program.
“This is for our children, this is for generations who are not yet born, because we know a living wage creates wealth,” Hodge said. “A living wage for all, if we do this properly, pushes back on the 1%, pushes back on the billionaire class.”
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