Rural Perspectives on Minimum Wage and Regional Economies
/Northwest Health Foundation and North Star Civic Foundation joined together in 2015 to listen to business and community leaders in six Oregon communities and gather concrete ideas and community-informed solutions around a proposed increase in the minimum wage in 2016 or 2017.
Nearly 1 in 6 Oregonians lives in poverty, and 2 in 5 can’t afford to pay for basics such as housing, transportation and food without public assistance.
Both of our foundations support an increase in the minimum wage as one component of a statewide effort to reduce poverty and help all communities flourish. We engaged in this listening process to inform our own positions on current proposals to increase the minimum wage.