California Senate passes higher minimum wage bill

• Bill would give Californians  top  minimum wage in the nation by ‘17

• Automatically adjusted for inflation annually starting in ‘18

• Aimed at reducing poverty, income gap

LOS ANGELES – California’s State Senate on Thursday, May 29, voted 21-12 to raise the state’s minimum wage to at least $13 per hour by 2017.

The bill would also require the minimum wage to be automatically adjusted for inflation annually beginning in 2018.

The adjustments would be calculated using the California Consumer Price Index and reductions in the minimum wage would be prohibited if inflation becomes negative in any given period.

California Partnership (CAP) Director Vanessa Aramayo said “an increase in California’s minimum wage is long overdue as it is lower than it was in 1965 when adjusted for inflation.

SB 935 sponsored Sen. Mark Leno would  “reduce the number of Californians living in poverty, reduce the number of people going hungry, and increase economic activity in our communities that have been hardest hit by the economic recession and stagnation of wages.”

A recent report by Human Impact Partners cites a study that predicts a minimum wage of $13 would help reduce the record-high income gap that exists in California today.

The study predicts that the income of 7.6 million Californians in families in the lowest quarter of income distribution would rise while the net income of the top 75 percent of households would not change.

California Partnership, a coalition of community groups, is a co-sponsor of the bill along with the Women’s Foundation, the Western Center on Law and Poverty, United Food and Commercial Workers Union and the California State Council of Service Employees International Union.