The Washington state minimum wage will increase 30 cents to $7.93 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2007, the state Department of Labor and Industries announced on Friday. The state's lowest legal hourly wage is recalculated each September as a result of Initiative 688, filed by Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender, supported by the state labor movement and dozens of community organizations, and ultimately approved by voters by a 2-to-1 margin in 1998.

The initiative set out to take the politics out of the minimum wage issue by requiring an annual cost-of-living adjustment based on changes in the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). For the 12 months ending August 2006, that nationwide index increased 3.9 percent. The new wage applies to workers in both agricultural and non-agricultural jobs; 14- and 15-year-olds may be paid 85 percent of the adult minimum wage.

"It's great news for minimum wage earners every year that they will be getting the cost-of-living raise they deserve," said Bender, "but $7.93 an hour is still poverty wages for thousands of Washington families who are struggling to afford a tank of gas or a trip to the doctor. Every year, we should congratulate ourselves that the law is working as voters intended, and then rededicate ourselves to the fight for maintaining and creating good family-wage jobs."

Washington was the first state to approve a state minimum wage increase that included annual inflationary adjustments, but the idea caught on in Oregon, where voters approved an initiative similar to Washington's that raised their minimum wage and requires annual cost-of-living adjustments. Oregon announced earlier this month that its minimum wage will also rise 30 cents to $7.80 an hour on Jan. 1. 

California recently raised its $6.75 minimum wage to $7.50 an hour (effective Jan. 1) and then $8 an hour (effective Jan. 1, 2008). In Alaska, the current minimum wage is $7.15. Other states with minimum wages above $7 effective Jan. 1 are Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut. (State minimum wage rates are posted at the DOL website.)

In the upcoming elections, voters in six more states will decide on ballot initiatives that seek to boost their states’ minimum wage levels.

The reason many state and municipal governments are raising the minimum wage is that the federal minimum wage remains at a shameful $5.15 an hour.  Under the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, the wages of the lowest paid workers in the country have been allowed to stagnate -- and be eroded by inflation -- for nearly a decade. There is still no sign that President Bush or Congress intend to address the issue.

As WSLC President Bender pointed out in his April 2006 column, "Since 1997, the cost of a loaf of bread has gone from $.86 to $1.04; the cost of a dozen eggs has gone from $1.15 to $1.45; and the cost of a gallon of gas has gone from $1.26 to $2.32, according to the BLS.  But the lowest legal wage hasn’t gone up one stinkin’ dime.  And during that period, Congress has voted itself eight pay raises totaling $31,600, or three full years’ pay for a federal minimum wage worker."

Washington's indexed minimum wage has prevented the state rate from becoming mired in politics as it has in the other Washington. But the powerful restaurant and agriculture industries continue to pressure the state legislature every year to try to exempt their industries' workers from the wage requirement or stop the annual adjustments. The labor movement has aggressively opposed those efforts, and so far, attempts to create sub-minimum wages for certain workers or employees who earn tips have been unsuccessful.

The most recent attempt to cut Washington's minimum wage, involved a congressional bill debated in August that would have permanently repealed the estate tax and raised the federal minimum wage. But the bill included language -- inserted at the behest of the National Restaurant Association -- that would have imposed a "tip penalty" in Washington and some other states, and allowed employers to pay as little as $2.13 an hour to workers who earn tips. Republican Reps. Dave Reichert, Cathy McMorris and Doc Hastings all voted for the measure, but it was killed in the Senate with Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray casting key votes in opposition.

Learn more about organized labor's efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, and to support state measures to do the same, at AFL-CIO Now.