Fung Vetos Raises for Low-Paid City Workers

CRANSTON, RI—An ordinance passed in a 5-4 vote by the City Council last week that would have set a $12.50 minimum wage for employees has been vetoed by the mayor.

Cranston Mayor Allan W. Fung said in an announcement on Wednesday night that he didn't support the ordinance, it would burden taxpayers and is "nothing more than a poorly thought out election-time stunt."

The ordinance, whose prime sponsor Steve Stycos said is a reflection of a need to raise wages beyond their current "pathetic" levels, was passed along party lines.

Styocs and his fellow Democrats argued that the existing $10.10 per hour wage many employees, mainly part-timers, get, is too low.

The push mirrors similar efforts across the country to address appallingly low minimum wages that force even full-time workers to get state and federal assistance just to eat and pay basic bills.

But Fung, in a statement, said that the ordinance was passed with no cost-benefit analysis and has no data to support the "arbitrary selection" of $12 or $12.50 per hour.

An earlier version of the proposed ordinance called for a $15 per hour minimum wage.

"In essence it is careless fiscal policy that undermines the already established pay scales and replaces them with arbitrary pay scales that do not make any sense," Fung said in a statement.

In his veto message, Fung said the ordinance would have created "substantial additional obligations" during the next two fiscal years, particularly in the library budget, which receives state library aid.

He also said that he's worried the ordinance would "be interpreted or extend to apply part-time employees of the Cranston Public Schools, which also depend heavily on state funding to meet budget needs."

Fung also said that the ordinance "creates a fundamental unfairness for an entire class of employees already making the proposed minimum twelve dollars per hour o more," Fung wrote. "These employees would receive no increase, but their co-workers who may be less qualified, have less seniority, or hold jobs that are less demanding would receive an an immediate raise of more than twenty percent."

An ongoing state effort to boost the minimum wage, now at $9.60 per hour, is set to increase it to $10.10 next year, according to Governor Gina Raimindo's proposed budget. Some legislators want to increase it even more.

Proponents of higher minimum wages note that not everyone can easily get a high-salary job in America and everyone in the world's richest country should have an opportunity to make ends meet no matter what job they get as long as they work hard.

Recent studies of the American labor force show that the notion that minimum wage jobs are a stepping stone for young people and teenagers is more myth than reality. The large volume of minimum-wage positions that exist cannot be filled with just teenagers.