The landscape of Lake County is breathtaking. Something else that took my breath away was learning we are the most impoverished of all the counties in California as of last year.

The reasons for this level of poverty among its population are complex and there are no quick or easy remedies for this.

There is however movement within our State Legislature to bring about some positive change.

AB 10 California Minimum Wage bill was signed into law in September of 2013 by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The bill raised the hourly minimum wage in California to $9 per hour beginning on July 1, 2014, then will increase it to $10.00 per hour beginning Jan. 1, 2016.

This will help shrink the gap between low wage and higher paid workers, lessening the effects of income inequality.

Raising the minimum wage is also thought to create more opportunity for job growth. This occurs when minimum wage employees begin spending more of their earned income. Thus sales increase and businesses need to hire additional workers to keep up with increased demand within the service industry.

However there will be an increase demand for goods across the board. That money will go right back into the economy and will most likely draw the attention of business to expand in Lake County as well as raise revenue to allow our impoverished county to raise up infrastructure that will develop county resources and schools.

AB10 restores some of the ground lost by low-paid workers in recent years, but it maintains the inflation adjusted minimum wage at about the same level as in 1988.

This is one of the reasons why we got to this level of poverty to begin with – the minimum wage doesn’t adjust to the cost of living.

The aim then should be to enact legislation that will adjust the minimum wage rate to the cost of living automatically – not simply giving those who work minimum wage jobs a raise but building in a safeguard that will keep those workers in a middle-class income.

Anthony Palma lives in Clearlake Oaks, Calif.