San Francisco to raise minimum wage to $9.36 per hour

Oakland Tribune, Dec 24, 2007 by Bay City News Service

SAN FRANCISCO - Beginning Jan. 1, all businesses in San Francisco will be required to pay employees at least $9.36 per hour, one of the highest hourly minimum wages in the nation, according to the city's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement.

The minimum wage increase is up from $9.14 per hour in 2007 and $8.50 in 2004.

All employees in the city, including undocumented workers, are covered under San Francisco's minimum wage ordinance, according to Rich Waller, the supervising compliance officer for the city's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement.

The ordinance, passed by voters in November 2003, sets the city's minimum wage each year based on figures from the consumer price index for urban workers in the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose metropolitan area, Waller said.

Since the ordinance went into effect in 2004, the OLSE has recovered about $1.5 million in back wages for some 1,700 employees who were not paid the minimum wage required, according to Waller.

About 180 businesses of various kinds were part of the claims, though 40 percent were restaurants, Waller said.

The minimum wage in California will be $8.00 per hour beginning in 2008, according to the state Department of Labor Standards Enforcement.

The federal minimum wage is currently $5.85 per hour, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. It is scheduled to increase under the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 to $6.55 in July 2008 and to $7.25 in July 2009.

Those with questions about the minimum wage laws in San Francisco can call the OLSE at (415) 554-6292 or visit http://www.sfgov.org/ olse.

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