San Jose Marks 1 Year Of Minimum Wage Increase, Other Cities Look To Follow Suit
SAN JOSE (KCBS)— San Jose State University marked the city's one-year anniversary of the passage of Measure D that increased minimum wage, by holding a rally with guest speakers on Tuesday. Now other cities are looking to follow suit.
The idea for the law to raise the wage from $8 to $10 an hour began at the university and has now gone up to $10.15 with a recent Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase.
Executive Director of Sunnyvale Community Services, Marie Bernard, said her city is now exploring raising their minimum wage by city ordinance.
"We're the second largest city in Santa Clara County, so to follow in the San Jose footsteps [it] makes a lot of good economic sense for the local economy and it's also the right thing to do," she said.
Bernie Goldsmith from the Raise the Wage Davis campaign said his group is looking to raise the wage to $15 an hour there.
"People initially think that that's high, but it really comes out to about $30,000 a year, which in Davis is not living high. It's just a fair wage for somebody who works full time," Goldsmith said.
While some small businesses have opposed the move, the San Jose Downtown Association said downtown did not lose any business because of the higher minimum wage.