Probably not. But as news yesterday came out that the adjustable minimum wage rate in Colorado will likely go down with inflation next year (ably dilated in this blog post by the Washington Policy Center's Carl Gipson), one may wonder why our state's inflation-adjusted minimum wage rate wouldn't also go down if (and as) inflation indices trend downward.
Colorado's minimum wage law was adopted in 2006 as an amendment to the state constitution. It states, in pertinent part, that Colorado's annual minimum wage "shall be adjusted annually for inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index used for Colorado." Note that an "adjustment" can go either up or down.
Washington's minimum wage law, by contrast, appears to be a one-way ratchet. Our statute, adopted by initiative in 1998, says the Department of Labor & Industries shall "calculate an adjusted minimum wage rate to maintain employee purchasing power by increasing the current year's minimum wage rate by the rate of inflation." Note the third verb: "increasing".
I suppose an argument could be made that if the rate of inflation is negative, the adjusted rate should go down despite the word "increasing" -- after all, keeping the rate the same the following year because of negative inflation isn't "increasing" it either. Courts in Washington have done stranger things with statutes.
But I wouldn't hold my breath.
