Minimum wage ordinance creates minimal clarity
If Berkeley City Council had passed an ordinance to increase minimum wage to $15 an hour a year ago, it would certainly have been cause for raucous celebration. But placed within the context of a November election that already includes two separate $15 minimum wage ballot measures, politics and confusion overshadow this exciting victory.
Berkeley residents are left wondering what prevented city officials from crafting a similar agreement before the minimum wage measures were placed on the November ballot.
Many of these same residents were largely shut out of this conversation, which took place behind closed doors while the council enjoyed its long summer recess.
To add insult to injury, the Friday special meeting at which City Council discussed and approved the ordinance took place at 9 a.m., when so many minimum wage employees — those whose voices are most important to this conversation — were at work.
Ensuring that Berkeley’s minimum wage employees can afford to live in the city is a noble goal, but leaving that decision directly to the people of Berkeley could only have been beneficial. On such important issues, officials should err on the side of greater democracy.
Ballot measures provide Berkeley residents the opportunity to make direct choices that can change their city. Issues such as minimum wage, which have such an extensive impact, are best suited to this type of direct democracy.
By undermining the minimum wage ballot measures, City Council — many members of which are seeking positions come November and could use the good press — effectively stole this issue from the people.
The fact that the survival of this ordinance now depends on the mobilization of a no-no campaign — by which the voters of Berkeley are educated to vote against both minimum wage ballot measures or risk invalidating the ordinance — highlights how confusing and unnecessary this situation is.
Despite a confusing process, however, an increase in Berkeley’s minimum wage is overdue and will begin a long process of leveling the playing field for workers in a city with an intensely high cost of living.
That doesn’t erase concerns faced by small businesses, and City Council would be remiss not to take quick measures to ensure its survival as the minimum wage increases to $15 over the next two years. Mom and pop shops are an essential part of Berkeley’s spirit and unique culture, and many small business owners express that Berkeley’s economic climate is not conducive to their operations.
Given the complexity of the economic challenges surrounding the necessary wage increase, the community — whether minimum wage earners or small business owners — should have had greater access to the conversation.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Senior Editorial Board.