The San José City Council voted to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour by Jan. 1, 2019 as part of a regional effort, led by Mayor Liccardo, to ensure more Silicon Valley residents benefit from the region's growing economic prosperity.

Since September of 2015, Mayor Liccardo has worked with a coalition of mayors from throughout Silicon Valley, as well as representatives the Cities Association of Santa Clara County, to prepare an economic analysis studying the impacts of a potential wage increase and to develop a common proposal that each elected leader could bring back to their city councils.

The San José minimum wage increase matches recommendations from the Cities Association and the coalition of mayors to reach a $15 minimum wage by Jan. 1, 2019 in three steps ($12 in 2017, $13.50 in 2018, and $15 in 2019), with automatic annual cost of living increases (based on the CPI, up to 5 percent) every year thereafter.

"Raising the minimum wage will provide a significant boost for the thousands of hard-working
families in our community who are struggling to keep up with the extraordinarily high cost of living in Silicon Valley," said Mayor Sam Liccardo. "By moving forward together with many of ou neighboring cities, even more residents will benefit from a higher wage and we will create a more level playing field for businesses throughout the region."

Learn more about the minimum wage increase. 

On Veterans Day 2015, Mayor Sam Liccardo and Supervisor Dave Cortese launched  All the Way Home, a campaign to end veterans homelessness in Santa Clara County.  Since the launch of the campaign, 510 of an estimated 700 homeless veterans have been permanently  housed, including 264 veterans through Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing  (VASH) vouchers. Veterans have also been housed through Supportive Services to  Veterans and their Families in partnership with local nonprofit veteran programs at Goodwill Silicon Valley, HomeFirst, Sunnyvale Community Services and Veteran's Resource Center.

The San José City Council has also set aside $5 million to launch Rebuilding for Heroes, a veterans housing incentive program that provides funds to owners of market-rate apartments and single family homes to make construction improvements to their properties in exchange for accepting formerly homeless veterans as tenants.

 

 

The passage of Measure B is a major boost to the City's efforts to improve San José. The projects spurred by Measure B will improve the quality of our roads and relieve congestion on many our residents' daily commutes.