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Pasadena City Council Meeting: Minimum Wage in Pasadena
February 11, 2019 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am
City Council will vote on increase on 2/11
Regular Meeting of the Pasadena City Council. We request your presence to support the Minimum Wage Increase to $15 in 2020.
Closed Session 5:30 P.M.
Public Meeting 6:30 P.M.
Public Hearing 7:00 P.M.
Council Chamber, Pasadena City Hall
100 North Garfield Avenue, Room S249
Pasadena has hired a pair of consultants who will help the City Council determine whether to boost minimum wage in the city to $15 in 2020.
IN 2016, the council approved a series of wage hikes that topped out this year at $13.25 an hour for employers with more than 25 workers. Wages could be boosted to $14.25 an hour in 2019 and $15 an hour in 2020, but only if the council finds the earlier pay increases had a positive effect on unemployment, poverty, job creation and the city’s overall business climate.
The city has tapped economists Michael Reich, a UC Berkeley professor, and Edward Leamer of UCLA. They’ll independently sift through data to see the possible impacts the wage hikes have had on Pasadena before working together, according to a city release.
The analysis will require a nuanced look at data from the federal Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
A Los Angeles County family with two income earners and two children needs an annual household income of $74,679 to make ends meet — or about $18 per hour each.
But on average, it’s even more expensive to live in Pasadena than elsewhere in the county: While the analysis assumes housing and utility costs of $1,545, the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Pasadena, according to Zillow, has increased from $2,200 to $2,900 over the last five years, the report reads.
“The minimum wage law is a key component of making Pasadena a more humane and livable city,” Dreier said. “Let’s not forget that the people who make this city run, the people who clean your house and take care of your kids and clean your buildings, … they’re the backbone of this city, and we haven’t done right by them.”
POP! – Pasadenans Organizing for Progress
Tale of Two Cities, a report by Dr. Peter Dreier of Occidental College and Dr. Mark Maier of Glendale Community College
Pasadena ranks second (after San Francisco) among California’s 50 largest cities in terms of the concentration of income among the wealthiest residents and the gap between the richest and poorest households.