CHART: How do the minimum wage proposals stack up?

Kari Chisholm FacebookTwitterWebsite

Last week, Gov. Kate Brown released her minimum wage proposal. Advocates of a $15 minimum wage promptly called it inadequate.

In an effort to shine a little light, I thought I'd actually stack up the various proposals against each other for you. (Update: I neglected to include the Raise the Wage proposal in my first edition of this post -- so it's now included!)

For starters, under current law, Oregon's statewide minimum wage is $9.25. It goes up every year against the inflation rate, rounded off to the nearest nickel. It didn't go up for 2016, due to a low inflation rate that didn't trigger another nickel -- dropping our ranking from #2 to #8 in the nation.

Raise the Wage Oregon has proposed (IP58) a $13.50 wage in 2018.

Oregonians for 15 has proposed (IP41) a $15 wage in 2019 -- with annual interim bumps along the way.

Governor Brown proposes raising the statewide minimum wage to $13.50 in 2022, also with bumps along the way. In addition, she includes a 15% premium in the Portland metro area -- setting an effective $15.52 wage in the region by 2022.

That's all a bit confusing, so I put together a little chart and a graph for you below.

(An important note: the italicized values are assumed inflation-based increases in the minimum wage. I assumed 2.28%, which is the average inflation we've seen over the last ten years. Obviously, that's a guess -- but it's an educated one.)

So, what do you think? Which option is the right one? How do you weigh the pros and cons on the policy and the politics?

yearcurrentIP41IP58KB-PDXKB-OR
2016$9.25$9.25$9.25$9.25$9.25
2017$9.45$11.50$11.75$11.78$10.25
2018$9.65$13.25$13.50$12.53$10.90
2019$9.85$15.00$13.80$13.28$11.55
2020$10.05$15.30$14.10$14.03$12.20
2021$10.25$15.60$14.40$14.77$12.85
2022$10.45$15.95$14.70$15.52$13.50
2023$10.65$16.30$15.00$15.87$13.80
2024$10.85$16.65$15.30$16.22$14.10
2025$11.05$17.00$15.60$16.57$14.40
2026$11.30$17.35$15.95$16.92$14.70

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