top
Peninsula
Peninsula
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Only Tiny Increase to Minimum Wage in Google's Backyard

by Tsurugi/Robertson
Rents are expensive in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View, California, home to Google and LinkedIn. For people working for minimum wage there is no money left for food, clothes, health care, transportation or education, after paying monthly rent. Often they share apartments with strangers, while others live in their cars. Despite this, on October 9 the city's council voted against all proposals for increases to the minimum wage except one allowing the tiniest of increases. "We cannot be the city to take the lead on this," said one of the council members. Protesters accused council members of having decided ahead of the open meeting on their position. One shouted as she marched out, "You are all just full of fear".
800_wagemvtop.jpg
Rents are expensive in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View, California. For people working for minimum wage there is no money left for food, clothes, health care, transportation or education, after paying monthly rent. Often they share apartments with strangers, while others live in their cars. Despite this, on October 9 the city's council voted against all proposals except one allowing the tiniest of wage increases.

"We cannot be the city to take the lead on this," said one of the council members. Protesters accused council members of having decided ahead of the open meeting on their position, one shouting as she marched out, "You are all just full of fear".

Vice-Mayor John McAlister is the owner of a franchise Baskin Robbins in Mountain View. He spoke out against increases to the minimum wage, citing his own problems in making a profit. "You all know teenagers, they've got other things on their mind when they come to work..." he said. He strongly implied that because teens are less than reliable he doesn't want to pay them more than minimum wage. "Never mind that some of those very teens are contributing to family income with their work", pointed out a member of the public as she left the meeting.

Margaret Abe-Koga, former mayor and now a council woman, pushed hard for the passage of a scheduled increase which would take the Mountain View minimum wage to $15/hour. But the council only would agree to just over $10 an hour.
§Rally ahead of Council Meeting
by Meanwhile Workers Suffer
800_wagemvdominicplus.jpg
§Rally ahead of Council Meeting
by Meanwhile Workers Suffer
800_wagemvbob521.jpg
Bob of SEIU 521
§Rally ahead of meeting
by Meanwhile Workers Suffer
800_wagemvblogfists.jpg
Raging Grannies with Dominic and John of "Our Walmart for Respect". Dominic (towards back) was fired for attempting to organize and joining others on strike protesting Wal-mart's unfair labor practices last year. On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, this year their organization will hold a protest at Milpitas Wal-Mart.
§On this side of the city council
by Meanwhile Workers Suffer
800_wagemvabekoga.jpg
Margaret Abe-Koga, former mayor and present council woman, pushed hard for the passage of a scheduled increase which would take the Mountain View minimum wage to $15/hour. She is under the flag
§On the other side
by Meanwhile Workers Suffer
800_wagemvmcalister.jpg
Far right...Vice-Mayor McAlister who carried on about how hard it is to be a franchise owner of a Baskin-Robbins. Even a small increase in pay to his staff hits his profit-line hard. He said he thinks that if he raises prices by ten cents per item, people will drive to a different ice cream store traveling further along El Camino.
Add Your Comments
Listed below are the latest comments about this post.
These comments are submitted anonymously by website visitors.
TITLE
AUTHOR
DATE
shoes
Sat, Oct 11, 2014 4:07PM
Frances Griffin
Sat, Oct 11, 2014 2:19PM
anon
Sat, Oct 11, 2014 9:59AM
Dan
Sat, Oct 11, 2014 1:44AM
John Loria
Fri, Oct 10, 2014 11:46AM
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network