Townhall meetings to focus on minimum wage proposals
ONTARIO, Ore. — Many farmers and others in Eastern Oregon fear efforts to significantly raise the state’s minimum wage would result in businesses moving across the border to Idaho.
Townhall meetings will be held in Eastern Oregon next week to inform people about the different proposals to raise the state’s minimum wage and discuss the impacts they could have.
One proposed ballot measure would increase Oregon’s minimum wage from $9.25 to $15 an hour over three years and another would raise it to $13.50 over that same period.
Idaho’s minimum wage is $7.25.
The meetings are being organized by Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, who said he has heard from many people that the current $2 an hour difference between the two states’ minimum wages makes it extremely difficult to create new jobs in Eastern Oregon.
The unemployment rates in Malheur, Grant, Harney and Baker counties in Eastern Oregon are 2-4 percentage points higher than the rates in Idaho’s Canyon, Payette and Washington counties, which border Oregon.
Bentz believes the difference between the states’ minimum wages is a big reason for that disparity.
“It’s been difficult just to attract jobs” in Eastern Oregon, he said. “It’s going to be impossible if (the minimum wage) goes higher....”
Several proposals to raise the state’s minimum wage were introduced in the Oregon Legislature last year, including one that would have increased it to $15 in 2018.
Passing legislation that increases Oregon’s minimum wage is expected to be a priority during the upcoming legislative session.
Farmers and agribusinesses in Eastern Oregon said they couldn’t compete against their colleagues on the Idaho side if the state’s minimum wage is increased substantially and Idaho’s stays the same.
“I guarantee you there will be packing sheds in this valley that move to the other side,” said farmer Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association. “They’ll have to. They won’t have any other choice.”
Owyhee Produce General Manager Shay Myers said his onion packing plant in Nyssa couldn’t compete against its Idaho counterparts if Oregon’s minimum wage is raised to anywhere near $15 an hour while Idaho’s doesn’t change.
“There are only two ways to cut labor costs: moving or automation,” he said. “It might be easier for me to move across the border.”
A minimum wage proposal by Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, recognizes the different costs of living between Portland and rural Oregon and seeks to head off the proposed ballot measures.
Dembrow, chairman of the Senate Workforce Committee, proposes to create three minimum wage zones in the state, with the highest rate being in the Portland area and the lowest in rural areas such as Eastern Oregon.
“It makes more sense to me to have the minimum wage more closely tied to the cost of living in the different parts of Oregon,” he said. “Clearly, the cost of living here in Portland is much higher than it is in Ontario.”