Lawmakers must halt runaway minimum wage

While it's not surprising that Washington's highest-in-the-nation minimum wage has popped up on the campaign trail, it is curious that it's mainly in the governor's race and not so much in legislative elections.

The big issue in the gubernatorial election is whether Dino Rossi would cut the minimum if elected governor. His latest TV ad says he would "never" reduce it for "adults." Be that as it may, the constantly increasing minimum wage must be addressed -- but by the Legislature, not the governor.

The driver for corrective action is the fact that the minimum wage is tied to an automatic escalator, which will push it up another 48 cents, or nearly 6 percent, to $8.55 per hour on Jan. 1, 2009. The Legislature starts its 105-day regular session on Jan. 12 and must revisit this issue. We simply must eliminate the escalator that has made the minimum wage unrealistic in today's workplace.

Washington's minimum wage applies to workers in both agricultural and nonagricultural jobs, although 14- and 15-year-olds may be paid 85 percent of the minimum wage.

To review the history of how we got to the $8.55 wage: Initiative 688, approved by Washington voters in 1998, requires the state Department of Labor and Industries in September to make a cost-of-living adjustment to the minimum wage each Jan. 1, based on the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers.

A check with L&I on the history of increases shows that the initiative initially raised the minimum to $5.70 in 1999 and to $6.50 an hour on Jan. 1, 2000. The first indexed increase boosted it to $6.72 on Jan. 1, 2001.

Now it will be $8.55. Compare that to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour, which will increase to $7.25 on July 24, 2009.

The law can be changed by simple-majority vote and it is clearly time to do so and stop the automatic hikes. Future increases should be determined by separate legislative action. And while it's a legislative function, whoever is governor in January should use all the influence of the office and its bully pulpit to pressure the Democratic-controlled Legislature to restore discretion to determining the wage base.

The constantly increasing state wage base is outstripping the original intent of a minimum wage. It was never designed to be a living wage. It was supposed to be an earnings floor for workers in entry-level, low-skilled or unskilled, often menial jobs, protecting a vulnerable work group from exploitation.

If someone doesn't want to earn just the minimum wage, then the solution is to get the education and/or skills and training needed to go up the wage ladder to qualify for better jobs.

Our editorial position on this issue has been consistent: There comes a time when it simply is not worth it to an employer to pay a wage that is not reasonable compensation for the type of work being performed. And Washington is leading the way to getting there with its constantly increasing wage base that consistently ranks it first among the states.

The escalator has become the problem, rather than the solution. It's time for lawmakers to get some political backbone and strike it.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.