Skip to footer

Minimum wage of $11.50? Washington DC to raise minimum wage in 2016

Minimum wage hike: Washington DC's city council has approved raising the hourly minimum wage in the US capital from the current $8.25 to $11.50 in 2016. The minimum wage will then be indexed for inflation.

|
Paul Sancya/AP/File
Protesters rally for better wages at a Wendy's in Detroit, Dec. 5.
  • By Ian Simpson Reuters

| WASHINGTON

Washington's city council on Tuesday approved raising the minimum wage to $11.50 an hour, one of the highest rates among US cities and part of the wealthy region's push to hike base pay.

The minimum wage in the US capital would rise in 2016 from the current $8.25, and then be indexed for inflation. The council gave unanimous final approval to the measure, which it first passed two weeks ago.

Democratic Mayor Vincent Gray has opposed the measure, saying it is unclear how it would affect the labor market, and urged an increase to $10 an hour instead. The unanimous vote means the council could pass it over Gray's veto.

The council coordinated raising the base wage with lawmakers in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, in Washington's Maryland suburbs. They approved similar measures last month.

Once the higher pay takes effect, the three jurisdictions would form a region with 2.5 million residents and a minimum wage higher than any of the 50 states. Virginia, which borders Washington, requires employers to pay the federal rate of $7.25 an hour.

Some business groups said the measure was ill-advised.

Jim Dinegar, the president and chief executive of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, told Reuters the higher wages would make the capital and the region less attractive to business, especially since Virginia's rate remained unchanged.

"They think they're doing this in a vacuum. They're not," he said of the council's vote.

Another business group, the District of Columbia Chamber of Commerce, has called for raising the minimum wage to $10 over three years and then indexing it to inflation.

Washington state has the highest hourly minimum wage among USstates at $9.19 an hour. Among city workers, those in Sonoma, California, enjoy the highest rate, at $15.38 an hour.

Gray had vetoed a bill this fall that would have required Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other big retailers to pay a 50 percent premium over the city's current minimum wage.

The pay hike comes after fast-food workers went on strike this month across the United States as part of a campaign to raise pay to $15 an hour.

The city council voted as the region emerges relatively unscathed from the recession and with the capital's economy and population growing.

The Census Bureau reported last week that eight of the 13 US counties with the highest median income last year were in the Washington area.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Minimum wage of $11.50? Washington DC to raise minimum wage in 2016
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2013/1217/Minimum-wage-of-11.50-Washington-DC-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-2016
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe