Oregon becomes first state to enact $15 minimum wage

SALEM, Ore. — Oregon’s governor on Wednesday signed trailblazing legislation that will raise the minimum wage to nearly $15 in six years and do so through a three-tiered system that has not been tried anywhere else in the country.

Gov. Kate Brown said the new law “is a path forward — so working families can catch up, and businesses have time to plan for the increase.”

President Barack Obama said Congress needs to follow Oregon’s example and raise the federal minimum wage — now at $7.25 an hour.

“I commend the Oregon Legislature and Governor Kate Brown for taking action to raise their state’s minimum wage,” Obama said in a statement. The president said 18 states and the District of Columbia have acted since he first called on Congress to increase the federal standard in 2013.

Oregon’s plan follows moves in states such as Massachusetts, California and Vermont that recently boosted statewide minimums above $10.

In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has proposed raising the state minimum wage from $9 per hour to $15 by 2020.

The hike would mirror a raise awarded last year to some fast-food workers by a board appointed at Cuomo’s behest. He and state lawmakers could include the more widespread wage-rate increase in the 2016-17 state budget now being negotiated.

The Oregon increases over six years surpass those adopted by any other state so far. Oregon’s current minimum wage is $9.25 an hour.

What makes the Oregon plan especially different is that the minimums will be based on where workers are employed. The approach aims to balance the needs of the rapidly growing urban powerhouse of Portland with the state’s struggling farming communities, which have long been deeply divided by their economic, cultural and political differences.

Portland’s minimum will rise to $14.75 by 2022, smaller cities to $13.50 and rural areas to $12.50.

— with James T. Madore