Oregon’s minimum wage will remain $8.40 per hour in 2010, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian announced last week.  Oregon’s minimum wage is tied to the Consumer Price Index, and is recalculated by the Labor Commissioner every September.  This year, however, the CPI declined 1.5 percent, so Oregon’s minimum wage workers will not receive a raise next year.  Click here to read Commissioner Avakian’s press release on the 2010 minimum wage. 

So, if prices are falling, why is there no decrease in the minimum wage?  Oregon’s minimum wage law, passed by the voters in 2002, does not provide for cutting the minimum wage when prices fall.

Don’t care because you don’t live in Oregon?  Click here for a state-by-state list of minimum wage rates.