County moves toward $15 an hour 'living wage'

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and several County Board supervisors in separate announcements Wednesday released proposals for a $15 per hour minimum wage for county employees and workers of contractors hired by the county.

Both plans reach the $15 wage goal in small steps over several years beginning with the 2016 county minimum of $11.68 an hour.

Supervisor Marcelia Nicholson said her proposed change to the county's living wage ordinance would increase the hourly minimum to $12.25 on Jan. 1, 2017, then boost it to $13 for 2018, with increases of $0.50 an hour each subsequent year until reaching $15 on Jan. 1, 2022.

Abele's proposal achieves the goal of $15 per hour one year earlier, in 2021, and will be included in a 2017 recommended budget that he will present to the County Board on Monday. His plan sets the minimum wage at $12.35 an hour in 2017 and pushes it higher each subsequent year: $13.01 in 2018; $13.67 in 2019; $14.34 in 2020; and $15 in 2021.

"Just having a job isn't enough," Abele said in a guest column Wednesday in the Journal Sentinel. "We need to invest in ways to put people on the path to a family-sustaining career, which is why I am putting a stake in the ground in Milwaukee County by joining the movement for a living wage."

Nicholson and Supervisors Sequanna Taylor and Marina Dimitrijevic discussed the proposed revision to the living wage ordinance, and the bump up to $15 an hour, at a noon news conference inside the courthouse.

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Nicholson described the proposal as a step "toward good jobs and economic justice for otherwise low-wage workers."

"It's wonderful to see the county executive supporting this initiative, and I look forward to working with him to raise Milwaukee County's living wage to $15 as quickly as possible," Nicholson said.

In March of 2014, the County Board overrode an Abele veto in adopting a "living wage" ordinance based on a formula using the federal poverty level for a family of four. The minimum wage was set at $11.32 in 2014.

That wage had increased to $11.68 per hour this year for county employees and employees of contractors. There are exceptions in the ordinance, such as contracts for airport concessions.

At that time of his 2014 veto, Abele said the wage ordinance could jeopardize the county's Family Care program, which then employed about 2,400 low-wage workers to serve in the homes of frail elderly and disabled people.

That program, now known as My Choice, has been shifted to a private not-for-profit corporation and its expenses will not be included in the county's 2017 budget.

Abele acknowledged the course set by the County Board two years ago.

"While the County Board and I have disagreed in the past on the best approach to increasing the minimum wage, I know we share the belief that no one who works full time should have to live in poverty," he said.

Dane County this year raised its "living wage" ordinance to $15 per hour.