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Editorial: Pinellas commissioners right to pursue living wage for county workers

 
Published Jan. 14, 2015

One sign of the economic recovery: Local governments are increasingly discussing paying their lowest-paid workers a living wage. Pinellas County commissioners on Tuesday opened the door to increasing the minimum wage for county employees to $12.50 an hour, just a few months after the city of St. Petersburg embraced the same policy. With their minimal fiscal impact, such policies make sense for government, particularly given that lower-wage workers' incomes usually flow straight back into the local economy. Pinellas' constitutional officers should commit to the same goal.

Commissioner Ken Welch urged the change, noting how it dovetails with the commission's recent emphasis on reducing the county's poverty rate. But the policy change also sends the right message to workers — many of whom labored for years through the recession without pay increases and took the equivalent of a pay cut when a new state law required them to contribute 3 percent of their salary to their retirement plan.

More discussion is needed of whether such wage requirements should extend to county contractors. But paying government employees more so they are less likely to qualify for government assistance makes good sense.