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S.F.’s Minimum Wage, Highest in the Nation, Eludes Thousands as Enforcement Efforts Face Obstacles

10-year-old reform unfinished as businesses routinely flout $10.55 mandate, labor activists say
This story is part of a special report in the Spring print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
While San Francisco’s minimum wage is the highest in the nation, thousands of workers still earn below the current mandate of $10.55 an hour, say economists, anti-poverty activists and public officials. It has been 10 years since voters passed the groundbreaking labor reform, and the city has built a first-of-its-kind inspection team that has recovered back wages for more than 3,000 workers. But these efforts appear to have addressed only a fraction of the problem. ALSO: Listen to discussion of S.F.’s minimum wage enforcement on KALW Radio’s “Your Call” Friday Media Roundtable.

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Indigenous People Face Obstacles Seeking Legal Pay

Mayas from Yucatán find work in food service, but face language, immigration barriers
This story is part of a special report in the Spring print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
Few are more susceptible to the crime of wage theft than indigenous newcomers from Latin America, say labor experts, advocates for minority ethnic communities and immigrant workers themselves. Indigenous people from Mexico and Central America, who make up as much as 30 percent of the population of immigrants from there, are less likely to be literate, to speak either Spanish or English proficiently or to have legal documentation.

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Restaurant Worker Paid Below Minimum Wage for ‘Training’

Food-service sector among worst violators of wage laws
This story is part of a special report in the Spring print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
Last year, Mauricio Lozano found a job through a friend at a pizzeria in North Beach. The pay was $8 an hour, in cash. He said a supervisor told him he would get less than San Francisco’s minimum wage because he was “in training.” Under city law, that’s no excuse for paying below the mandated wage floor, then $10.24 an hour. But the restaurant needed someone right away, and Lozano was in no position to negotiate. 

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S.F. Lacks Data to Set Minimum Wage Policies

Estimates of low-wage workers range from 20,000 to 55,000
This story is part of a special report in the Spring print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
With President Barack Obama proposing to increase the federal minimum wage, local policy experts say fully understanding the economic effects of the change could be a problem given the dearth of accurate statistics in the large city that has had the highest minimum wage for years: San Francisco. No one has ever done a formal tally of minimum wage earners in San Francisco, said Ted Egan, chief economist for the city’s Office of Economic Analysis.

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Economists Say City Minimum Wage Means Big Boost for Working Class

Backers say it helps recruitment and retention, opponents say it kills jobs
This story is part of a special report in the Spring print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
“Job killer” is a common refrain from businesses in opposing wage increases and other worker benefits. But some researchers are challenging the assumption that boosting the minimum wage depresses hiring. “We don’t see any decline in employment,” said Michael Reich, director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley.

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‘I Don’t Think You Can Survive in This City on the Minimum Wage’

At S.F.’s largest soup kitchen, working adults say full-time work no longer pays the rent
This story is part of a special report in the Spring print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
As President Obama’s minimum wage hike proposal renews a national debate over costs and benefits, many low-wage workers in San Francisco say they can hardly get by even on the nation’s highest minimum wage of $10.55, which is nearly $3 an hour higher than the federal rate. As rents have soared above $1,500 for a typical studio apartment,  low-income workers say San Francisco’s minimum wage isn’t enough to keep up. 

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