California’s largest labor union on Tuesday unveiled its own bid to increase the statewide minimum wage, setting up dueling pay measures aimed for next year’s ballot amid persistent concerns over income inequality.
The proposed initiative, supported by the Service Employees International Union’s state council, would boost the base wage to $15 per hour by 2020, and mandate six paid sick days a year. The current $9-an-hour minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $10 on Jan. 1.
Following another failed push in the Legislature, Roxanne Sanchez, president of SEIU Local 1021, said it’s time California joins the nationwide effort.
“We have more wealth than anywhere,” Sanchez said. “But also more poverty and economic inequality.”
The announcement exposes simmering tensions between SEIU’s umbrella organization, which claims more than 700,000 members, and SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, which is pursuing a separate measure to gradually hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021. The health care union’s bid, previously backed by Controller Betty Yee and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, on Tuesday received the blessing of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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