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Bottom Rung: Living On Low Wages In Idaho
The share of Idaho workers earning minimum wage has grown from 5 percent in 2011 to 7.7 percent in 2012. The growth has put Idaho in the top spot for the largest share of minimum wage workers in the country. How did that happen? And what’s being done to reverse the trend?

Oregon, Washington Minimum Wage Set For Increase

NWNews | By Chris Lehman,
Chris Lehman
Published December 26, 2014 at 4:20 PM MST
The minimum wage is going up by 15 cents an hourin both Washington and Oregon to $9.47 in Washington and $9.25 in Oregon.
The minimum wage is going up by 15 cents an hourin both Washington and Oregon to $9.47 in Washington and $9.25 in Oregon.

The new year will mean higher pay for low-wage workers in Oregon and Washington. The minimum wage in both states is set for an increase.

The minimum wage in both Washington and Oregon is tied to inflation. It's going up by 15 cents an hour in both states: to $9.47 in Washington and $9.25 in Oregon.

But the Oregon Center For Public Policy’s Tyler Mac Innis said that’s not enough.

"It translates to $26 a month in the pockets of full-time working Oregonians that are working at the minimum wage,” he said. “And $26 a month just isn't enough to get ahead."

Some Oregon lawmakers have come out in favor of a proposal to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour. That's what it will be in Seattle as a new law is phased in there over the next six years.

Some minimum wage workers in the Seattle suburb of Seatac already make $15 per hour. Meanwhile, Idaho's minimum wage won't change in 2015. It's the same as the federal minimum wage: $7.25 per hour.

Business groups say a much higher minimum wage will lead to layoffs and higher prices for consumers.

Copyright 2021 Northwest News Network. To see more, visit Northwest News Network.

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Economy WagesEconomyMinimum Wage
Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.
See stories by Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.

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