CHART: How do the minimum wage proposals stack up?
Kari Chisholm
Last week, Gov. Kate Brown released her minimum wage proposal. Advocates of a $15 minimum wage promptly called it inadequate.
In an effort to shine a little light, I thought I'd actually stack up the various proposals against each other for you. (Update: I neglected to include the Raise the Wage proposal in my first edition of this post -- so it's now included!)
For starters, under current law, Oregon's statewide minimum wage is $9.25. It goes up every year against the inflation rate, rounded off to the nearest nickel. It didn't go up for 2016, due to a low inflation rate that didn't trigger another nickel -- dropping our ranking from #2 to #8 in the nation.
Raise the Wage Oregon has proposed (IP58) a $13.50 wage in 2018.
Oregonians for 15 has proposed (IP41) a $15 wage in 2019 -- with annual interim bumps along the way.
Governor Brown proposes raising the statewide minimum wage to $13.50 in 2022, also with bumps along the way. In addition, she includes a 15% premium in the Portland metro area -- setting an effective $15.52 wage in the region by 2022.
That's all a bit confusing, so I put together a little chart and a graph for you below.
(An important note: the italicized values are assumed inflation-based increases in the minimum wage. I assumed 2.28%, which is the average inflation we've seen over the last ten years. Obviously, that's a guess -- but it's an educated one.)
So, what do you think? Which option is the right one? How do you weigh the pros and cons on the policy and the politics?
| year | current | IP41 | IP58 | KB-PDX | KB-OR |
| 2016 | $9.25 | $9.25 | $9.25 | $9.25 | $9.25 |
| 2017 | $9.45 | $11.50 | $11.75 | $11.78 | $10.25 |
| 2018 | $9.65 | $13.25 | $13.50 | $12.53 | $10.90 |
| 2019 | $9.85 | $15.00 | $13.80 | $13.28 | $11.55 |
| 2020 | $10.05 | $15.30 | $14.10 | $14.03 | $12.20 |
| 2021 | $10.25 | $15.60 | $14.40 | $14.77 | $12.85 |
| 2022 | $10.45 | $15.95 | $14.70 | $15.52 | $13.50 |
| 2023 | $10.65 | $16.30 | $15.00 | $15.87 | $13.80 |
| 2024 | $10.85 | $16.65 | $15.30 | $16.22 | $14.10 |
| 2025 | $11.05 | $17.00 | $15.60 | $16.57 | $14.40 |
| 2026 | $11.30 | $17.35 | $15.95 | $16.92 | $14.70 |
