United States: San Francisco Adopts Local Minimum Wage Of $8.50

San Francisco employers soon must pay employees a minimum wage of $8.50 per hour. This new requirement is the result of Proposition L, passed by the voters in November.¹ It requires employers with 10 or more employees to pay at least $8.50 per hour for all work performed within San Francisco beginning February 23, 2004. Non-profit organizations and businesses with fewer than 10 employees will pay a minimum wage of $7.75 beginning January 1, 2005, and $8.50 (as adjusted) beginning on January 1, 2006. The new law does not apply to employees who work less than two hours a week within the geographic bounds of the city or who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement that expressly waives the provisions of the ordinance.

The minimum wage will be adjusted yearly based on increases in the Regional Consumer Price Index. By December 1 of each year, the Living Wage/Living Health Division of the Office of Contract Administration (the "agency") will publish and make available the adjusted minimum wage rate for the upcoming year. The agency will also publish a notice informing employees of the city minimum wage and their rights under the ordinance. All employers must post this notice in a "conspicuous place" at any San Francisco workplace or job site. The notice is available at www.ci.sf.ca.us/oca/lwlh/mw/notice.pdf. The notice must be posted in English, Spanish, Chinese, and any other language spoken by at least five percent of the employees at the workplace or job site. Employers must also provide each employee at the time of hire with the employer’s name, address, and telephone number in writing. Finally, the ordinance requires employers to retain payroll records for four years and to allow the agency to access such records.

While the ordinance is limited to the City and County of San Francisco, it may not be the last of these ordinances should the federal and state minimum wages remain at their current levels. So far there are only two other places in the country — Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico — that have similar local minimum wage ordinances.