Minimum Wage

In 2015, the Cities Association adopted Minimum Wage as a priority and endorsed the recommendation to implement regional consistency across the county.  As an effort to provide economic data about the impacts of increasing minimum wage across the region, the Cities Association supported a regional minimum wage study led by the City of San Jose.  At our April 14, 2016 Board Meeting, we received a presentation on the results of the regional minimum wage study and survey from the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley and BW Research.  This effort was also supported by a number of mayors in September 2015, who expressed a desire to study and then take action on minimum wage to as best possible create regional consistency.

Key findings of the study showed that increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019 in our County would:

• Increase earnings for 250,000 workers
• Raise average annual earnings of affected workers by 19.4 percent, or $3,200 (in 2014 dollars)
• Increase average prices in Santa Clara County by 0.2 percent over three years
• Have a net effect on employment that is slightly negative at the county level (1,450 jobs) and close to

zero at a 10-county regional level

The study assumed these steps, which land at $15 one year after Mountain View and Sunnyvale, and three years before the State of California:

• $12.00 on 1/1/2017
• $13.50 on 1/1/2018
• $15.00 on 1/1/2019

In June of 2016, the Cities Association of Santa Clara County Board of Directors approved to forward proposal to cities and county:

• Ramp-up (increases) take place in three steps ($12.00 on 1/1/17, $13.50 on 1/1/18, $15.00 on 1/1/19);
• “Off-ramp” triggers during ramp-up phase that would allow for scheduled increases to be delayed under certain economic conditions;
• Index to Bay Area CPI-W after 2019, capped at 5%
• Round to nearest 5 cents
• No exemptions

Update on Minimum Wage in Santa Clara County:  January 2020