Des Moines mayor: $15 minimum wage for city workers
Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie says full-time city workers deserve a $15 an hour minimum wage and he’s pushing the city to establish that standard.
Cownie and the City Council gave a directive to city staff Monday to evaluate all city job descriptions and functions. The goal is to forge an ordinance that would guarantee “to pay a livable wage” to all permanent, full-time city workers.
Cownie said he’s hoping for $15 an hour minimum. Though the specific figure depends on feedback from council members and the city’s legal advisers who plan to review labor-union contracts and bargaining rules in the weeks ahead.
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“We want to let people know, our employees who work for the city and serve your needs every day, we want them to make a living wage, and quite frankly we think it’s $15,” Cownie said.
Only a handful of full-time city positions offer a starting salary range that dips slightly below $15 an hour, said James Wells, director of human resources for the city.
Library clerks are one example, though Wells could not immediately confirm whether any current employees are paid less than $15 an hour.
Iowa’s state minimum wage, which mirrors the federal wage, last increased to $7.25 in 2008.
Polk County task force says $10.75 wage by 2019
Multiple Iowa county governments in the past year have begun taking local action on minimum wage. Johnson County established a minimum wage for all employers of $9.15 with a scheduled bump to $10.10 an hour on Jan. 1.
Polk County and Linn County supervisors are also expected to consider local wage hikes this fall after they appointed task forces to evaluate the issue.
Cownie said the ordinance in Des Moines would only apply to city workers while he waits to see how a broader minimum wage ordinance pans out in Polk County.
Councilman Skip Moore voiced enthusiasm for the initiative as a way to show appreciation for exceptional employees.
“They crawl down sewer lines. They pull people out of burning buildings. They chase people who are shooting back at them with guns,” Moore said. “I fully support this.”