So I was perusing the net this morning when I ran across an article explaining that the voters of San Francisco approved a law in 2003 that will increase the minimum wage as of Jan 1, 2012 to $10.24/ hour!
This is nearly $2.00/hr above the California State Minimum Wage and nearly $3.00/hr above the federal minimum wage.
The state of New York’s minimum wage is in accordance with the Federal Minimum wage at $7.25/ hour.
Now I believe it is good that people are gaining traction in the wage category, but I am interested to see what types of small businesses end up out of business due to the latest increase. I think many states and cities around the country are watching the guinea pig of San Francisco to see what type of expected/unexpected results come from this drastic change in payroll. Remember each of those companies now need to shell out about $1.15/ hr more in payroll taxes for this increase. I will track this over the next year or so to see what happens.
Mr. Baxter:
Have you ever lived in San Francisco? It is incredibly expensive. $10.24 might seem like a lot to you. But I struggled to live out there even when I made $18hr at my last job there. Even in Saratoga it would be almost impossible to live on $10.24 an hour even if your rent was somehow paid for.
Nancy, as a child I did actually live about 25 minutes north of San Francisco. My reality of cost was quite a bit off from what I know of today. I do agree with you that living on $10.24/hr in San Francisco would be extremely difficult or almost impossible. But as the circle of economics changes, those people making $10.24/hr in San Francisco would be making $8.00/hr in upstate NY. The costs associated with the higher pay are being filtered back to consumers at restaurants, hotels, retail stores etc. So the price of goods is higher which then will make it even harder for someone making $10.24/hr! Unfortunately economics will not allow for someone to make a higher minimum wage, while keeping prices down. As wages increase so do prices! It’s a never ending struggle and I bet that the cost of living in San Francisco increased as dramatically as the minimum wage did!