Oregon’s Minimum Wage Increases on July 1, 2020

Oregon’s minimum wage increases on July 1, 2020, but the raises won’t be the same across the state. The minimum wage increases to $13.25 per hour inside the Portland urban growth boundary, $11.50 per hour in nonurban counties, and $12.00 in other areas of the state. As U.S. consumer prices stayed flat over-the-year ending in May 2020, minimum wage workers will enjoy up to a 6.7 increase in their purchasing power.

Oregon’s minimum wage levels were set by Senate Bill 1532 in 2016. The minimum wage increases on July 1 each year through 2022. There are three tiers of step increases based on geography. Beginning in 2023, minimum wage in all tiers will be adjusted for inflation.

Oregon’s three minimum wages will be in the top seven state-level minimum wages in the nation. The highest minimum wage will be in the District of Columbia ($15.00), followed by Washington ($13.50), Massachusetts ($12.75), and California ($13.00). Oregon’s July 1 increase will set the standard minimum wage on par with minimum wage rates in Arizona, Colorado, and Maine ($12.00). The federal minimum wage will remain at $7.25 per hour.

A Look Back at Minimum Wage Jobs in 2019

Between July 1, 2019 and July 1, 2020, Oregon’s minimum wages were $12.50 per hour within the Portland urban growth boundary, $11.25 standard, and $11.00 in nonurban counties. Roughly 6.6 percent of all jobs paid minimum wage or less in Oregon in the third quarter of 2019.

Oregon’s metro area counties had a slightly smaller share of minimum wage jobs (6.6%) than its non-metro counties (7.0%). Among the metro area counties, Deschutes County had the lowest percentage of jobs (5.1%) paying minimum wage, followed by Marion County (5.4%) and Multnomah County (5.8%). Clackamas County had the highest share of jobs paying minimum wage among metro counties at 9.2 percent.

Sixteen counties had a share of minimum wage jobs at or below the statewide share of 6.6 percent. The smallest shares were in Hood River County (3.9%), Morrow County (4.0%), Gilliam (4.8%), and Deschutes County (5.1%). Counties with a higher share of minimum wage jobs tended to be in rural areas. Eastern Oregon had a greater share of minimum wage jobs than other areas of the state. The highest shares of minimum wage jobs were found in Wheeler (18.1%), Baker (12.6%), Harney (11.5%), Malheur (11.4%), and Grant County (10.9%).

Read economist Sarah Cunningham's full article here.

More Than 40 Percent of Jobs Paid at Least $20.00 Per Hour in 2018

In 2018, the largest number of jobs was held by professional and business services (449,745 or 14.3% of the total jobs in Oregon). The leisure and hospitality industry ran not far behind, capturing 431,829 (13.8% of all) jobs that year. In terms of percent increase, that industry has rebounded more than any other (up 21.4%) since the recession a decade ago. Despite over-the-year gains, three broad industries – construction (down 3.5% from 2006), manufacturing (-5.1%), and financial activities (-8.6%) – have yet to regain all the jobs they lost during the recession.

The median hourly wage of jobs in all broad industries rose from $17.03 to $17.79 per hour in 2018 – a year-over-year increase of 4.5 percent, likely boosted by increases in the minimum wage. All individual broad industries saw their median wages increase. Leisure and hospitality recorded the largest over-the-year median wage increase, at 7.8 percent. The real (inflation-adjusted) change in median hourly wages are generally less impressive. They shrink the year-over-year all industries median hourly wage increase to 2.0 percent and leisure and hospitality’s increase to a still notable 5.2 percent.

Almost one-quarter (24.2%) of all 2018 jobs paid at least $30.00 per hour. Nearly 43 percent (1,349,020 jobs) paid at least $20.00 per hour; larger than the percentage (37.2%) that paid less than $15.00 per hour. All but the smallest hourly wage class posted job gains. The $15.00 to $19.99 category had the highest year-over-year percent increase in jobs at 12.0 percent. The latter increase is not surprising, given minimum wage increases and the concentration of job gains in professional and business services and leisure and hospitality. As of July 1, 2018, the lowest minimum wage in Oregon was $10.50 per hour. At the other end of the spectrum, the highest ($60.00 or more) wage class showed the second largest gain in numbers of jobs (11.0%). Nearly 10 percent of all jobs paid $50 or more per hour; the top two classes together also saw a 10 percent increase in number of jobs in 2018.

To learn more, read Special Projects Analyst Barbara Peniston's full article here.

A Look Back at Minimum Wage Jobs in 2018

Note: Some of the figures originally published in this blog post were revised on June 17, 2019.

Between July 1, 2018 and July 1, 2019, Oregon’s minimum wages were $12.00 per hour within the Portland urban growth boundary, $10.75 standard, and $10.50 in nonurban counties. Roughly 7.3 percent of all jobs paid minimum wage or less in Oregon in the third quarter of 2018.

The share of jobs paying minimum wage ranged from a low of 3.5 percent in Morrow County (279 jobs) to a high of 12.4 percent in Harney County (331 jobs). Multnomah County had 40,240 minimum wage jobs, which made up 7.1 percent of total jobs in the county.

With a larger concentration of jobs, metro areas also have more minimum wage jobs. Among the metro area counties, Deschutes County had the lowest percentage of jobs (5.7%) paying minimum wage among metro counties, followed by Marion County (5.8%) and Benton County (6.4%). Clackamas County had the highest share of jobs paying minimum wage among metro counties at 10.2 percent.

Seventeen counties had a share of minimum wage jobs at or below the statewide share of 7.3 percent. The smallest shares were in Morrow County (3.5%), Hood River County (4.1%), Deschutes and Clatsop counties (5.7%), and Marion County (5.8%). Counties with a higher share of minimum wage jobs tended to be in rural areas. Eastern Oregon had a greater share of minimum wage jobs than other areas of the state. The highest shares of minimum wage jobs were found in Harney (12.4%), Malheur (12.1%), Wheeler (11.8%), and Sherman (10.0%).

To learn more, read the full article written by State Employment Economist Nick Beleiciks.

Oregon's Minimum Wage Increases July 1, 2019

Oregon’s minimum wage increases on July 1, 2019, but the raises won’t be the same across the state. The minimum wage increases to $12.50 per hour inside the Portland urban growth boundary, $11.00 per hour in nonurban counties, and $11.25 in other areas of the state.

Oregon’s three minimum wages will be in the top nine state-level minimum wages in the nation. The highest minimum wage will be in the District of Columbia ($14.00), followed by Massachusetts and Washington ($12.00); Colorado and New York ($11.10); and Arizona, California, and Maine ($11.00). The federal minimum wage will remain at $7.25 per hour.

Oregon’s minimum wage levels were set by Senate Bill 1532 in 2016. The minimum wage increases on July 1 each year through 2022. There are three tiers of step increases based on geography. Beginning in 2023, minimum wage in all tiers will be adjusted for inflation. This means the minimum wage will maintain purchasing power after the last step increase in 2022.

To learn more, read the full article written by State Employment Economist Nick Beleiciks. 

See our report Oregon’s Minimum Wage Jobs: Facts, Figures, and Context for historical information about Oregon’s minimum wage jobs.