Graton Resort & Casino in Sonoma County to boost pay for all employees

Graton Resort & Casino, one of the county’s largest employers, plans to boost wages for workers across the entire team effective Monday.

The pay hikes at the Rohnert Park casino will include a minimum 10% pay raise for salaried employees, and hourly wage increases for tipped and non-tipped workers.

Tipped employees will earn $17.50 an hour, a $2.50-an-hour minimum raise based on current wages. All other hourly workers will be paid $18.50 an hour, a $3.25 hourly minimum raise based on current wages, according to the casino’s announcement.

The tribal gaming center also announced it will start a new quarterly discretionary bonus program.

“Families in Northern California struggle to get by on the minimum wage,” Greg Sarris, tribal chairman for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, said in a prepared statement. The tribe owns and operates the casino. “Costs for food and shelter are inordinately high here.”

Sarris said the casino always has paid its employees above minimum wage and provides paid benefits that include 100%-paid employee health insurance.

“A wage increase seemed only fitting to help our team members after a difficult year,” he said.

The casino in June brought back all but 20 of its 2,000 employees after having furloughed 1,200 in mid-March. The 20 staffers chose not to return.

Graton Resort & Casino is a member of Unite Here, a labor union that represents 300,000 workers across the U.S. and Canada. The union’s members work in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation and airport industries, said D. Taylor, the union’s international president.

“Too many employers in the hospitality industry have left their workers behind during COVID-19, and the leadership of Graton Resort & Casino sends a powerful message that our recovery depends on good jobs and a just economy,” Taylor said in the casino’s statement. “We're proud to work with Graton Resort & Casino to advance the standard of living for working families in Sonoma County."

Graton employee Kathy Winfield said in the statement the pay hike will relieve some of her family’s financial pressure.

The casino is “proud to be a business ... where people can grow their career and support their families,” Sarris said.

The $820 million, 340,000-square-foot Graton Resort & Casino opened Nov. 5, 2013. Three years later, the casino opened its six-story 200-room hotel, a $175 million project that added an additional 342,000 square feet to the property. The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria owns and operates the facility