Napa Valley Register - Thompson addresses business leaders in AmCan

Raising the minimum wage, helping the middle class and encouraging more domestic manufacturing jobs were some of the key issues raised by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, during a recent meeting with American Canyon business leaders.

Thompson easily won re-election to the 5th District on Tuesday. Although his victory was never seriously in doubt, he continued to campaign throughout the valley. One of his last stops was with American Canyon's Chamber of Commerce.

Increasing the federal minimum wage, an idea often rejected by business lobbyists in Washington, D.C., received a warmer response from the head of the local Chamber of Commerce, which invited Thompson to address its Government Affairs Committee.

Thompson made it clear he supports raising the hourly wages of lower-paid workers in line with what President Barack Obama has called for.

The president's plan, which stalled in Congress, would gradually raise the wage from the current $7.25 to $10.10 an hour by 2016.

"People need to have a livable wage," Thompson told the audience, saying the plan was part of a broader strategy to help middle-income Americans.

"We can't abandon the middle class or those people starting to become part of it," he said. "If we lose the middle class, we're not sustainable as a great nation."

James Cooper, CEO and president of the local Chamber of Commerce, agreed with Thompson that the minimum wage needs to go up.

"I know that the norm for a Chamber of Commerce is to defer to the side of business. There is a mentality in that line of thinking that less wages is better for business. I don't think that way at all," Cooper said. "I have long recognized that money in the hands of people makes the economy turn. I would love to see the minimum wage raised, and I would love to see it raised sooner rather than later."

For now, he said, raising it to $10.10 makes sense.

However, given the high cost of living in California, Cooper said, "We're going to need to see higher wage growth."

Hiking the minimum wage could have a significant impact on American Canyon, considering the projected growth of its job base.

City leaders expect the number of employment opportunities in the leisure and hospitality sectors, which include restaurants and fast-food franchises as well as large numbers of minimum wage workers, to nearly double over the next 30 years.

Retail jobs, which also tend to be minimum wage, are expected to jump nearly 20 percent in the city by 2040.

Another important source of jobs for American Canyon is in manufacturing and wholesale. Two of the largest private employers in the city are food processor Mezzetta and Coca Cola-owned Pokka Beverages.

Thompson said he favors revising the U.S. tax code to encourage more manufacturing operations in the country and reverse the tide of American jobs heading overseas.

"We need a tax code that incentivizes manufacturing in the U.S., not a tax code that incentivizes off-shoring," he said.

He said he hopes tax reform can be addressed during the next Congress.