I'm sure the this has nothing to do with raising labor costs.

Wal-Mart Stores cutting health insurance for part-time workers and raising premiums for its other employees.

"Member John Inks was opposed to both the increase and moving towards $15 an hour, claiming that most people work minimum wage jobs only temporarily."

Did he actually say this? We are not talking primarily about summer/after school jobs for teens, or people who have clear upward mobility. Get out more.

It's an easy task to see how many children are both dropped off and picked up by a parent--not a child-- at any of the elementary schools. Even the "lower income" school like Castro Elementary.

minimum wage jobs used to be 'entry' jobs followed by better salaried jobs with education and training and promotion

not now ----now they are the norm

if you believe they are 'entry' jobs then you do not see all those in their 40's and 50's and 60's working minimum wage

as the gentleman said above -- 'get out more"

I support workers getting decent wages and I am not sure if that means a livable wage in Mountain View or Atherton or Gilroy or Los Banos,etc...because Subway and many other mom/pop small businesses can't afford to pay $15 an hour and still make a decent profit for their own existence in Silicon Valley. Workers and all these crooked socialists and liberals don't seem to understand this. Raising the minimum wages will impact the same workers in a very negative way that they want to help. Not every business is a Walmart and Walmart can't pay $15 in Mountain View and pay a different wage in San Jose, because that is not how their business model works. Forcing businesses to pay substantially higher wages will force businesses to hire even cheaper undocumented workers because there are tons of them out there. I feel sorry for the Walmart workers and their conditions they have to work under and it is pathetic that Walmart is not paying them enough but local govts should intervene in private matters unless it is criminal.

This will make it harder for teenagers to get a job while going to school. They are being forced out of the labor market by older people who use the pay to live on.

Kudos to the Council. For all those on the fence on this issue (though the vast majority is in support), I recommend looking into the research of Michael Reich and Ken Jacobs up in Berkeley to get an educated sense of the impact of raises in the minimum wage. Much of what you see in the comments section here, or in Republican talking points are not based in research but ideology.

Thank you to Council! It is truly what the majority of Mountain View wants, the country wants, and hardworking families and their children need.

It may be not be illegal for John McAlister to vote, but it is certainly unethical. He was directly impacted by the vote.

Maybe if people have a few more dollars in their pockets, they could take their families out for an ice cream once in a while.

And what planet does John Inks live on?

The man that told the council not listen to these emotional stories about living on minimum wage, and then proceeded to tell an emotional story about his daughter, was a study in hypocrisy.

@Glenn Meier,

Glenn, maybe you should talk to John Inks.
Here is what the Voice said about this:

"Member John Inks was opposed to both the increase and moving towards $15 an hour, claiming that most people work minimum wage jobs only temporarily."

So we waste all this time and effort to get $10.30 when CA will make it $10 in Jan 5 moths later. Talk about political crap in an election year.

Effective January 1, 2008, the minimum wage in California is $8.00 per hour. It will increase to $9.00 per hour effective July 1, 2014, and to $10.00 per hour effective January 1, 2016.

What a load of nonsense.

I'm against the minimum wage in any form.

But I'm even more against half measures meant to do nothing but get votes.

You want someone to be able to actually live on what they make in Mountain View? Raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour.

$10.30 isn't even symbolic. It's just pandering.

The only real effect this will have is increasing the cost of doing business in Mountain View compared to neighboring cities. And that's a good thing how?

It does stink of grandstanding when it only comes into play 6 mo before it goes up to $10 anyway.

Like Sunnyvale's magazine/ammunition laws....how many gun deaths there since they passed that law vs Mt View...?

Well spoken, Otto Maddox!
If we want to make any kind of measurable impact, we need to make a change large enough to show up statistically. Anything less is a farce, just a stupid, hollow gesture. Let's make it $20/hr, then we could show some clear results.
Any guess how fast a Baskin-Robbins would be out of business at that labor cost? I'll bet McAlister could tell us to the day.

I also agree with you Otto Maddox. If these MW proponents were really principled and truly interested in helping low income people, they should support a true living wage of at least $25/hour. As it is, it look like pandering to special interests groups by the council so they can say they did something

Agreed, the $10.30 is total political pandering. Does anyone know what Mountain View Walmart's actual wages are for employees? I'd be surprised if this makes a difference even at that scapegoat for underpaying employees.

A real, meaningful minimum wage increase, on the other hand, would have an effect. If you're interested, read about what's happening in Germany right now after instituting a minimum wage. They had free market wages until recently, when they implemented an 8.50 euro, or about $10.75 minimum wage. Hundreds of thousands losing their jobs, the costs of goods going up, especially things like taxis which are going up 50-70% depending on city (Web Link Some people are getting paid more, many people are getting laid off, and all people are seeing prices go up.

and BTW, the two workers quoted in the article were already earning above the MW instituted by the city. How is this going to help them?

Yeah, this is total political pandering. Just because most of the voters want it raised, why do it? Uhhh....

$10.30 will not allow people to afford a million dollar home, so we should do nothing. If that is the case, then we should close hospitals, because not every patient will be successfully healed there. Uhhh....

The only real effect this will have is increasing the cost of doing business in Mountain View compared to neighboring cities. Well, sunnyvale and palo alto will also be increasing the minimum wage, so what neighboring city are you referring to? Los Altos? Oh, yes..SO MANY people work there... Uhhh....

Even Google isn't paying some of their full time employees anything close to $25 per hour. You'd think they would want to keep their staff close to work, but its cheaper to just give them a free bus ride to and from San Jose, because they can't afford to live closer.

The people working for the minimum wag were not pandering but trying to get the best possible results in spite of the pandering to the business community by the city council. They are still pressuring the city to raise the minimum wage to $15. It would be nice to demand a $25 dollar increase but that is unrealistic short of revolution. There are all kinds of findings that a higher minimum wage does not increase unemployment. Maybe business especially Walmart, but even small business should consider a smaller profit to give workers a higher wage.

Is that sarcasm? I took it as sarcasm originally, but then I thought may it was an earnest comment.

Most studies do show an impact on youth employment. The overall unemployment rate is irrelevant. Also, who pays for the minimum wage. A recent Stanford study showed that higher prices for goods consumed by low skilled workers more than offset the raise in wages received by those luck enough to keep their jobs. The SF Chronicle has published some recent examples of firms shutting down and leaving SF because of higher MW's.

The city and state need to provide subsidized rents and health care to help people and not put the burden on small mom and pop shops. This will cause small businesses to close down. Only large business with buying power will survive or business who can automate their processes thus reducing their labor cost. CA or Mountain View doesn't support small businesses only giants like Linkedin and Google. Soon all you will see are CVS and Walmarts and Togo's or Chipotle. All small players will get weeded out leaving very little diversity and options.