Give tiered minimum wage bill a fair shake

This editorial appears in the Yakima Herald-Republic on Feb. 12, 2009

For far too long, employers have had to deal with our state's ever-increasing minimum wage with no ability to break through its rising ceiling of costs.

Now they may have a breakthrough.

Under a proposed bill before our Legislature, lawmakers are considering a tiered minimum wage for teens. It offers some very compelling features.

The bill would allow workers who are 16 and 17 to be paid the federal minimum wage. That now stands at $6.55 per hour as opposed to the state's wage of $8.55. Those younger than age 16 could be paid as low as 85 percent of the federal wage, or $5.57 per hour.

Any worker 18 and older would still be paid at least the state's minimum wage.

What this tiered system offers is a training wage for teens, something that would be attractive to agricultural, food service and retail businesses in the Yakima Valley. These industries provide nearly 8 percent of full-time jobs here.

House Bill 1928 is co-sponsored by Rep. Mike Armstrong, R-Wenatchee, and by a number of lawmakers in Central Washington.

This is the latest effort to break apart the wage barriers set up by Initiative 688, which voters passed in 1998 and requires the state to make cost-of-living adjustments to the minimum wage each Jan. 1. That has pushed our state's minimum wage to the highest in the nation and has forced employers, from fast-food restaurants like McDonald's to movie theater owners like Mercy Enterprises in Yakima, to limit access to jobs for teens.

This new tiered process would enable these employers to hire teens at a lower, training-level salary. It would not only give these teens a chance to get a paycheck, but also an opportunity to build a résumé for a better position down the road.

We hope the bill gets a fair hearing in the Legislature. It deserves consideration given what the job prospects are looking like these days -- bad for adults and even worse for teens.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Barbara Serrano, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.