Washington Minimum Wage

Washington Minimum Wage. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

It seems like we just had this conversation last year but here it is again. Scott Dilley, Washington State Farm Bureau’s Public Policy Analyst talks about the proposed minimum wage increase for Washington State.

DILLEY: There are some jobs in agriculture that do pay minimum wage. It depends on the commodity. But for those that do pay minimum wage of course this means a higher input cost so not only are farmers facing higher inputs for fuel, fertilizer, pesticides and other payroll taxes, now they have to pay more for labor.

As of the first of the year Washington state’s minimum wage is increasing 15 cents to $9.19 per hour. Some commodities like tree fruit may not be as adversely affected since they tend to pay a piece rate.

DILLEY: But overall. long term they will be and we continue to have the highest minimum wage in the nation. And that of course places our farmers and ranchers at a competitive disadvantage compared to other farmers in the rest of the country as well as agriculture worldwide.

An initiative was passed back in 1998 to help raise the minimum wage.

DILLEY: The initiative does not allow for the minimum wage to go down when the consumer price index goes down. It is assumed that the consumer price index will always go up and the minimum wage needs to go up accordingly. We’re stuck on an escalator and the escalator keeps going up and there really is no way for it to go down short of a legislative proposal.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.