Oakland votes down plan to gradually increase minimum wage

Oakland Mayor-elect Libby Schaff immediately reached out on sports and police interests. Oakland Mayor-elect Libby Schaff immediately reached out on sports and police interests. Photo: Michael Short / The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Oakland votes down plan to gradually increase minimum wage 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

The Oakland City Council voted late Tuesday to scrap a plan that called for a gradual increase in the city's minimum wage for nonprofits and small businesses, instead leaving it up to the voters to consider a more aggressive proposal in November.

The resolution, which was voted down 5-3 by the council, had called for Oakland to raise the city's minimum wage more slowly than a competing plan called Lift Up Oakland that will appear on the November ballot.

Critics worry that Lift Up Oakland, which would increase the hourly base wage by 36 percent - from $9 to $12.25 - starting March 1, could have the unintended consequence of forcing nonprofit job-training programs to assist fewer teens and other job seekers, as well as suffocating small businesses or send them fleeing outside the city.

Councilwomen Pat Kernighan and Lynette Gibson McElhaney had proposed an alternative ordinance that would have raised the minimum wage for companies with more than 150 employees to $12.25 an hour starting in October 2015. Smaller businesses would have more time to comply.

But Tuesday night, Kernighan and Gibson McElhaney found little support from their colleagues, who said they didn't want to undermine the efforts of Lift Up Oakland by backing an alternative wage plan.

Proponents had hoped the ordinance would sap momentum from Lift Up Oakland, which would have superseded the ordinance if it won.

Several council members didn't like the idea of using the proposed ordinance to defeat the ballot measure.

"I am not comfortable with that," Councilman Dan Kalb said before voting against the ordinance.

Council members Libby Schaaf, Desley Brooks, Rebecca Kaplan and Noel Gallo joined Kalb in voting against the ordinance. Kernighan, Gibson McElhaney and Councilman Larry Reid voted in favor.

The council's decision elicited loud cheers from an audience that wanted the council to throw its full weight behind Lift Up Oakland.

"We can't leave people behind," said Frank Jones, 28, an Oakland carpenter. "It is not a minimum wage of $15 if people are making less than that."

Ballot measure supporters have cited a study by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, which found that raising Oakland's minimum wage would benefit 48,000 workers.

Gary Jimenez, president of the Lift Up Oakland Coalition, said 33,682 people had signed a petition to put the wage increase on the ballot. "The voters said it was time," he said.

But others said they worried that the 36 percent wage increase would undermine small businesses.

"I am hoping that you'll pass this ordinance so that businesses like mine can stay in business," Amy Roither-Quintero, a partner in a downtown restaurant said before the vote. She declined to identify her business, saying she was worried it would become a target for protests.

Roither-Quintero said the wage increase would cost her restaurant $47,000 a year.

"This initiative is going to be detrimental," Roither-Quintero said. "It is not going to lift anyone up when businesses have to close and no one has a job."

But Schaaf, who is running for mayor, said it was time to raise Oakland's minimum wage.

"People have waited long enough," Schaaf said. "There will be challenges, but it will be worth it."

Kernighan said she was sorry to see the ordinance voted down.

"The good thing is when Lift Up passes, is that many, many people are going to make more money," Kernighan said. "But there will be some casualties."