The same day the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) was scheduled to launch a campaign to push the city to raise pay for 3000 to $15 an hour, city officials proposed raising the hourly pay to $13 across the board.
The city budget for the next fiscal year is introduced this week.
COPS/Metro Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group based in San Antonio, has been trying to get the wage lifted to this rate for more than a year. They first pushed at the County Level last summer.
What does the new rate of pay mean for workers? Will it be good for the overall economy?
This question of what to do about the minimum wage, which remains unchanged at 7.25 since 2009, is being asked nationally. Seattle passed requiring businesses raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by between 2017-2021. New York state is looking at raising it for fast-food workers to $15 by 2018 in New York City and by 2021 in the rest of the state.
Many have predicted the moves will raise prices and limit employment for the least skilled.
Guests:
- Elsa Caballero, President of SEIU Texas
- Mike Phillips, spokesperson for COPS/Metro Alliance
- Harry Holzer, professor of economics at Georgetown University and non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institute
