It's time to raise Oregon's minimum wage. But how high should it go?

Kari Chisholm

Oregon already has the second-highest statewide minimum wage in the country, at $9.25 an hour -- with an inflation adjuster.

All across the country, advocates are pushing for higher minimum wages -- including right here in Oregon. And that's right on, because a higher minimum wage boosts the economy, helps lift people out of poverty, and reduces demand on social services from full-time workers.

But the question is: How high should it go?

No fewer than four different numbers are proposed in legislation before the Oregon Legislature:

• SB 682

  A one-time bump of just under $1.50 to $10.75 by January 2016, to be inflation-adjusted after that.

  Proposed by Sen. Alan Bates.

• HB 2800 and SB 327

  $10.90 in 2016, $12.20 in 2017, and adjusted for inflation after that. Starting in 2017, the wage would also be no less than the federal poverty line for a family of four. That's likely be somewhere in that mid-twelve-buck range, but it's hard to know now.

  Proposed by Sens. Lee Beyer and Diane Rosenbaum and Reps. Margaret Dohery, Paul Evans, John Lively, Barbara Smith Warner, and Brad Witt.

• HB 2012 and SB 597

  $11.40 in 2016, $13.50 in 2017, and adjusted for inflation again in 2018.

  Proposed by the House Business & Labor and Senate Workforce committees.

• HB 2009 and SB 610

  $11.50 in 2016, $13.25 in 2017, $15.00 in 2018, and adjusted for inflation after that.

  Proposed by Sens. Chip Shields, Alan Bates, Michael Dembrow, Chuck Riley, Diane Rosenbaum, Elizabeth Steiner Hayward and Reps. Rob Nosse, Chris Gorsek, Phil Barnhart, Peter Buckley, Lew Frederick, Mitch Greenlick, Alissa Keny-Guyer, Barbara Smith Warner, and Jessica Vega Pederson.

What do you think? What's the right number -- and why?

By Kari Chisholm April 14, 2015