On Tuesday, May 19, the Santa Rosa City Council will consider a request by the California Restaurant Association to delay implementation of the city’s $15-an-hour minimum-wage ordinance. The legislation, approved last September, requires large employers to pay $15 an hour and small employers to pay $14 an hour—two dollars more than the state minimum wage—beginning July 1.

Why should the city implement the higher minimum wage on July 1?

First, unemployment has skyrocketed and the economy has collapsed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Raising the minimum wage will act as a stimulus to spur greater business activity, particularly for small businesses, as low-wage workers spend their increased earnings locally for basic needs. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago reports that every $1-an-hour wage increase for a minimum-wage worker results in $2,800 in new consumer spending by that worker’s household over the following year.

Second, according to the UCB Labor Center, more than one in three Santa Rosa workers earn less than $15 an hour; thus, approximately 25,000 workers would receive a pay raise. These low-wage workers are, on average, 33 years old; contribute one-half of their family’s total income; and three out of four belong to working poor families earning less than $50,200 a year.

Moreover, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, most Santa Rosa workers providing essential frontline services during the Covid-19 crisis earn low wages. These workers are disproportionately women, workers of color and immigrants employed in the grocery, food, retail, child care, domestic, farmworker, transit-related, home care and health care, janitorial and cleaning, warehouse and delivery industries.

Third, between 1987 and 2017, the adjusted gross average incomes for the top 20 percent of North Bay and California families rose by 55 percent, while the incomes for the bottom one-fifth dropped by 15 percent.

Fourth, between 2006 and 2017 in the North Bay and across California, median household rent rose by 16 percent, while median annual earnings for the typical full-time worker increased by just 2 percent.

Finally, the City of Petaluma implemented a minimum-wage law on January 1, 2020, boosting the minimum to $15 for large employers in that city. Elsewhere in California on July 1, 10 municipalities and one county will either raise their existing citywide or countywide minimum wage to $15 an hour (City and County of Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Monica, San Leandro, Alameda and Fremont) or move forward with a Cost of Living Adjustment to an existing citywide minimum wage now set above $15 an hour (Emeryville, Berkeley and San Francisco). None of these cities are considering delays.

Soaring inequality, the rising cost of living and economic justice demand a small raise for the lowest­-paid workers. As Covid-19 amply demonstrates, they do the essential work for us all.

Martin J. Bennett is Instructor Emeritus of History at Santa Rosa Junior College and a Research and Policy Associate for UNITE HERE Local 2850.

As millions of Californians scrambled to navigate life in a
pandemic, Governor Newsom negotiated a deal with PG&E and placated the
failed utility’s investors. And it’s not a good one.

For survivors, Newsom’s deal means being handed company
stocks that are plummeting in value and locked in a trust they can’t even
control.

The deal would load the new PG&E with at least $38
billion in debt – billions that will eventually be added to our monthly bills,
making it impossible to pay for necessary safety upgrades.

With more wildfires and PG&E shutoffs coming, Newsom’s
deal does little to address the grid’s fundamental safety issues, and only
triggers substantive change if PG&E burns down more families and homes.

In the North Bay, we’re still restabilizing our communities
after surviving fires in 2017 and 2019. Rents increased 36 percent in Sonoma
County immediately after the 2017 fires, and in a region where 1 in 10 of jobs
are in hospitality, the pandemic has left many unemployed, wondering how we’re
going to pay rent and bills. We’re still grappling with the loss of our homes
and the deaths and displacement of our loved ones from the fires. We cannot
allow PG&E to continue robbing our communities to pay for their negligence.

Our collective health and safety depends on housing,
healthcare, energy to refrigerate our food and hot water to wash our hands. To
protect that, we need utilities that prioritize safety and serve the public
good, not just extract profits.

Energy and water should be human rights and shared
resources, not commodities. Temporary moratoriums on evictions and shutoffs
won’t cut it – we need real debt forgiveness on utility bills.

Now is the time for system change. We need full and fair
cash compensation for fire victims, no additional debt that ratepayers will
have to pay, and a plan to transform PG&E into a community-and-worker owned
entity with a safe, reliable, climate-resilient grid.

Governor Newsom said “Bankruptcy turned out to be an extraordinary opportunity for the state.” And it is. But if he doesn’t reverse course soon,
that opportunity could become a recurring nightmare.

—-

Jessica Tovar is an Oakland-based organizer with the Local
Clean Energy Alliance. Tré Vasquez lives in Santa Rosa and is a staff member
with Movement Generation. Both are part of the Reclaim Our Power Utility
Justice Campaign.