Gov. Jerry Brown to Sign Minimum Wage Increase Bill

By City News Service and Melanie C. Johnson

Gov. Jerry Brown today will sign legislation that provides for the minimum wage in California to rise from the current $8 per hour to $10 by 2016.

Two signing ceremonies are on the schedule. In the first, the governor will be joined by business owners and legislators as he signs Assembly Bill 10 in the auditorium of the Ronald Reagan State Building on Spring Street in downtown L.A. The second ceremony will take place at noon at the Cypress Mandela Training Center in Oakland.

The new law will have a high impact on California, which is reported to have the nation's largest number of the so-called working poor.

Monrovia Patch recently asked readers what they thought about about the push to increase the minimum wage. Many residents did not support the measure.

"You can raise it to what ever but the bottom line is it won't be put back into our economy," wrote Liz. "It will be put into a money order and sent to someone's homeland. I believe that is the main reason people are complaining that they can't live on the min. wage as it is now."

However, some said minimum wage needed an increase.

"Don't you realize that the minimum wage hasn't technically been raised since the 1960's, when you put it in today's dollars," wrote Claire Kavanagh Joseph. "If you give people more money to spend they will spend it at your Businesses and it lifts the economy for everyone. I am embarrassed by the selfishness of my neighbors. We are all in this together, no matter where we come from."

What do you think about the minimum wage increase? Share your thoughts in comments.