Every time minimum wage goes up it costs Manteca taxpayers initially at least another $21,000 a year.
When Jan. 1 rolls around the City of Manteca’s nearly 100 part-time workers will see their hourly pay increased from $12 to $13 an hour. The bulk of those workers are in the Parks & Recreation Department.
The minimum wage will increase again to $14 on Jan. 1, 2021 and then to $15 on Jan. 1, 2022.
The California minimum wage had been $8 an hour for six years until the state legislature adopted a measure that is designed to take it up to $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2022. The first step was increasing it to $9 an hour on Jab, 1, 2014.
After three straight years of $1 an hour raises the city’s Parks and Recreation Department was facing a $350,000 deficit largely due to increased labor costs involving part-time program workers. The $21,000 overall increase in wages compounds annually.
That means the $21,000 it cost to bring minimum wage employees up a $1 an hour starting back in 2009 now costs the city $105,000 annually. By the time the last minimum wage hike goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2022 it will cost $147,000 more to have the same number of employees as it did in 2014. That represents an 87.5 percent increase in part-time payroll costs between 2013 and 2022. The overall cost additional cost to taxpayers during the seven years it takes to fully implement the $15 minimum wage is in excess of $630,000.
In the case of part-time recreation employees, most of the minimum wage hike costs are now being passed on to participants in the form of higher fees.
Positions that will go to $13 per hour are lifeguard trainer, Recreation Leader I, and scorekeeper/timer. The hourly wages for all other part-time workers will range from $13.32 to $30 an hour after the first of the year.
When the minimum goes up a dollar to $13 for the lowest paid employees, the wages of other-part-time workers goes up even more per hour therefore widening the gap between the lowest paid employee and them.
For example, the administrative assistant when a $1 raise was awarded to those making the minimum wage on Jan. 1, 2016 saw their pay increase $1.68 more per hour. The gap between the lowest paid part-time worker at $13 when 2020 rolls around and the administrative assistant will be $4.48 per hour.
The highest paid part-time employee in the city is the parks project coordinator position that will make $30 an hour on hand. But if they are at the last step of the 5-step salary schedule they will be earning $36.58 an hour.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
