The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries has announced that the state minimum wage will increase 48 cents to $8.55 an hour beginning Jan. 1, 2009. The state's lowest legal hourly wage is adjusted for inflation every year as a result of Initiative 688, filed by Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender, supported by the state labor movement and dozens of community organizations, and ultimately approved by voters by a 2-to-1 margin in 1998.

The state law's annual cost-of-living adjustments took the politics out of the minimum wage issue by indexing the wage to the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, a national index covering the cost of goods and services needed for day-to-day living. For the 12 months ending August 2008, that index increased 5.9%, a higher jump than previous years caused by escalating prices for gasoline, food and other necessities. The new minimum wage applies to workers in both agricultural and non-agricultural jobs; 14- and 15-year-olds may be paid 85% of the adult minimum wage.

"This increase is great news -- a desperately needed raise for minimum wage earners who are struggling to meet basic needs," Bender said. "But $8.55 an hour is still poverty wages for thousands of Washington families who are struggling to afford a tank of gas or a trip to the doctor. Every year, we should congratulate ourselves that the law is working as voters intended, and then rededicate ourselves to the fight for maintaining and creating good family-wage jobs."

The federal minimum wage, which has lagged significantly behind Washington's and therefore eroded in value due to inflation, will rise to $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. Like Washington, many states have taken the matter into their own hands and increased their state minimum wages. Among the other states that will have minimum wages of at least $8 an hour on Jan. 1, 2009, are California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and Oregon.

Washington was the first state to approve a state minimum wage with annual inflationary adjustments. The idea quickly caught on in Oregon, where voters approved an initiative similar to Washington's I-688. Oregon's minimum wage will rise 45 cents on Jan. 1 to $8.40 an hour. In 2006, voters in six more states approved initiatives to increase their minimum wages and index them to the inflation rate.

In a Sept. 25 debate with Gov. Chris Gregoire, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi declared his support for a lower minimum wage. Although voters approved our indexed minimum wage by a 2-to-1 margin, Rossi told business leaders assembled for the Association of Washington Business-hosted debate that he would create a new sub-minimum "training wage" for new employees in order to improve Washington's business climate.

In supporting "training wage" proposals, Rossi likes to reinforce the myth that minimum wage earners are mostly teenagers entering the workforce for the first time who work part time and are not supporting family members. But an Economic Opportunity Institute study of Census Bureau data found that 75% of workers affected by the minimum wage increases in Washington are over the age of 20. Nearly 60% of workers are female, and nearly half work full time. In addition, minimum-wage earners are far less likely to receive employer-paid health care or retirement benefits.

As a State Senator in 2003, Rossi voted to lower Washington's minimum wage (SB 5697). Rossi's 6% voting record on the minimum wage and other labor issues ranks among the worst -- and most partisan -- of any legislator during his 1997-2003 tenure in the State Senate.

"Dino Rossi -- just like George Bush, John McCain and many other Republicans -- still clings to these Reagan-era trickle-down economic policies that have clearly failed working people and dramatically widened the gap between the haves and have-nots," said Bender. "For a full-time worker, an $8.55 an hour minimum wage is just $342 a week before taxes, or less than $18,000 a year. A wealthy real estate developer like Dino Rossi has no idea what it's like to try to make ends meet on those poverty wages, and frankly, he doesn't seem to care."

Bender added that full-time minimum wage workers in Washington state qualify for government assistance for their health care and housing needs, meaning that taxpayers are essentially forced to subsidize businesses that pay these poverty wages.

"Rossi talks a good game about letting the free market solve all of our problems," Bender added, "but his trickle-down economic policies would remove important protections for average working people and create government subsidies and safety nets for businesses -- at taxpayers' expense. It's bad for workers, bad for taxpayers, and bad for Washington."

All union members are urged to learn more about Dino Rossi's anti-worker voting record.