New Minimum Wage Increase Effective January 1st, 2008

In September 2007 Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner announced that there would be a 15-cent an hour consumer price adjustment to Oregon’s minimum wage. This increase will be effective as of January 1, 2008. Once this adjustment is in place Oregon’s Minimum wage will be $7.95 an hour, making it the second highest minimum wage in the nation. Washington State will once again lead the nation on January 1st when their minimum wage increases to $8.07 an hour. Like Oregon, their increase comes from an indexing component.

The federal minimum wage will also be increasing to $7.25 effective July 24, 2009. This increase will reduce the gap that Oregon employers have seen in the past few years. The government does not currently use an indexing system such as the law here in Oregon to figure Federal minimum wage.

Oregon and Washington are currently two of the total seven states that have not established a tip credit and, with the current political climate in Oregon, it does not seem likely that an opportunity would arise to correct any of the minimum wage issues.