The Eagle/Angel Carpenter<br> Kelsi Livran, GUHS senior, is a gas attendant at John Day Jackson's Oil Shell. She and many others in Grant?County will see a bump in their paychecks in January due to the minimum-wage increase.

GRANT COUNTY – New Year’s Day will bring an automatic pay raise for minimum-wage workers across the state of Oregon.

Effective Jan. 1, 2009, minimum wage in Oregon will increase from $7.95 to $8.40, which will also rank Oregon as having the second-highest state minimum wage in the nation, just behind Washington state.

The wage hike follows a ballot measure Oregon voters approved back in 2002.

The increase is a welcomed gift for most minimum wage-earners who, like everyone else, are trying to stay ahead of the bills in the current economic downturn.

Reactions from workers polled around Grant County was upbeat.

Kristen Coombs, an attendant at John Day’s Jackson Oil Shell Station said simply, “It’s awesome. Everything else is rising, so why not that too? We can actually afford to do things now,” she added.

For Kayla Cole, a clerk at the Elkhorn Mini-Mart and Motel, the response was similar.

“It’ll be a positive effect in my life and help me out a lot,” Cole said. “It’ll just make things a little easier.”

Owners of businesses who will have to pay out those sudden increases aren’t as cheery about the news, however.

Ron Lundbom, owner of NAPA Auto Parts in John Day said, “It’s nice … if you’re one of the ones getting a raise.”

“But it seems like just a quick fix,” he said. “I just don’t believe minimum wage is the way to help people who are in entry level positions.”

Lundbom added that while speaking out against the increase can put a person in an unpopular position, he felt that there are other ways to compensate, like not charging income tax. He also felt that the burden shouldn’t be on the employer.

“The extra 50 cents or so per hour isn’t going to make much difference anyway,” he added.

Greg Jackson, owner of Jackson Oil, voiced similar opinions.

“What’s bad is that you can’t really live on minimum wage anyhow,” Jackson said, adding that people pretty much work in minimum wage positions as entry-level or secondary, part-time jobs.

“For most people it takes two incomes anymore anyway. It’s very difficult to get by these days without some sort of assistance for food and bills like heating and gas,” he said.

Jackson also pointed out that it forces up wages for those who were making a bit above minimum wage and now will find themselves back at the base level.

And he said, most employers in the retail sector just can’t afford to pay those kinds of wages.

“Somebody’s got to pay for that … and eventually, it’s the public.”

But over at America’s Best Value Inn in John Day, Adrian Couey said, “I’m all for it. We’re barely making it as it is.”

Couey and her sisters, Ashley (age 14) and Megan (age 15) Long, along with other family members, help their mother Tina Long manage the family-run business.

Couey, the mother of two small children, is a housekeeper, desk clerk, “and just about everything else” at the motel, which the family took over in March.

She added that they were all born and raised here and want to stay here.

If it wasn’t for the help from programs like energy assistance and Christmas boxes, Couey said they don’t know what they’d do.

“We’ve cut down on everything else as it is,” Couey said.

“The increase in minimum wage will be awesome on my next paycheck.”