By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Minimum wage, maximum pain
State wage laws force Boys & Girls to raise fees, GECAC to start charging
GECAC LATHROP SCHOOL1 4-28-16
After School Advantage Program Site Coordinator Victor Ortega, right, helps Jazmine Lopez with school work at Give Every Child a Chances site at Lathrop School. - photo by HIME ROMERO/ The Bulletin
California’s minimum wage laws are already having severe impacts on Manteca’s two leading non-profits — Give Every Child a Chance and the Manteca-Lathrop Boys & Girls Club.GECAC is charging for the first-time ever for its After School Advantage Program serving 1,377 youth imposing $20 a month or a $1 a day charge. The Boys & Girls Club with 1,800 members has increased fees from $24 to $60 annually making the cost of belonging to the club and accessing all of its programs $5 a month. Both offer scholarships to kids whose families meet the federal free and reduced lunch household income rules.The increases, however, aren’t in response to the California Legislature’s decision to increase minimum wage from $10 an hour to $15 by 2022.The new fees were imposed after the two non-profits were unable to continue to absorb the impact of the two most recent state mandated jumps in minimum wage that took it from $8 to $9 on July 1, 2014 and then $9 to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016.With nearly 200 people assisting students at the after school programs, the minimum wage hikes have cost GECAC some $300,000 to implement.