Oregon Minimum Wage
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown celebrates before signing Senate Bill 1532, increasing Oregon's minimum wage according to a tiered system, at the State Capitol in Salem on Wednesday, March 2, 2016. Portland's minimum will rise to $14.75 by 2022, suburban areas to $13.50 and rural areas to $12.50. The tiered approach is based on economic factors. (Anna Reed/Statesman-Journal via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
(Anna Reed)
More than 100,000 low-wage workers across Oregon will start to see a small bump in take-home pay on Friday when the state's new minimum wage takes effect.
Oregon's current $9.25-an-hour minimum wage, already one of the highest in the nation, will start looking radically different each July depending on where residents live and work.
A refresher: Governor Kate Brown signed the state's new minimum wage into law in March. The wages will be phased in over the next six years, and different parts of the state will have different wages each year. By July, 2022, metro low-wage workers will earn $14.75-an-hour.
Here's what you need to know:
WAGES CHANGE STARTING JULY 1
Oregon will no longer have a standard minimum wage across counties. Instead, there will be three wage areas: Metro, Standard and Nonurban. In the Portland metro area, defined as the land within Metro's Urban Growth Boundary, the minimum wage rises to $9.75-an-hour Friday. For the Standard area, places such as Eugene-Springfield, Medford, Corvallis, the Northern Coast and Bend, the rate will also rise to $9.75-an-hour. But in the rest of the state, some 18 counties defined as Nonurban and which includes all of of Eastern Oregon, the minimum will increase to $9.50-an-hour.
I LIVE IN SANDY BUT WORK FULL-TIME IN GRESHAM. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ME?
If more than half of your work hours are based in Metro's Urban Growth Boundary, you will be paid the new rate of $9.75-an-hour on July 1. That rate still applies if your work consists of delivery outside of the metro area. The metro area is broadly defined as Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties, but not all sections of the counties are in the UGB. Use Metro's map to verify your location.
I'M A FARMER AND HAVE HISTORICALLY NOT PAID MINIMUM WAGE AND RELIED ON PIECE-RATE AGREEMENTS WITH WORKERS. DOES ANYTHING CHANGE FOR ME OR OTHER EMPLOYEES THAT ARE EXCLUDED ACCORDING TO STATE LAW?
No.
MY BOSS PLANS TO CUT MY HOURS BECAUSE OF THE CHANGE. DO I HAVE ANY RECOURSE?
No. Charlie Burr, a state spokesman in the Bureau of Labor and Industries, notes that Oregon is an at-will state. "So an employer is free to make decisions about hours and schedules as they like," Burr said in an email. Those decisions apply so long as employees aren't "unlawfully discriminating against a worker because of race, sex, sexual orientation or other protected class," Burr said, or retaliating against a worker due to whistleblowing.
WHAT HAPPENS IN JULY, 2017?
Low-wage workers in the metro area will see the largest wage jump of any year in the six-year cycle. Metro workers will be paid $11.25-an-hour started July 1, 2017, a 13 percent increase. Rural workers will be paid $10-an-hour, and workers in Eugene and elsewhere will see $10.25-an-hour wages.
WHAT HAPPENS IN JULY 2023?
The Standard wage will be adjusted annually if there's an increase in the Consumer-Price Index. If so, the wages will rise in the metro area $1.25 above the Standard rate, and rural Oregon's minimum wage will remain $1 less than the Standard rate.
Here's how Oregon's minimum wage would escalate through the years.
-- Andrew Theen
atheen@oregonian.com
503-294-4026
@andrewtheen