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California Might Raise Its Minimum Wage To $11 An Hour
Jun 1, 2015 | Reuters
By Sharon Bernstein
California's minimum wage would rise to $11 per hour next year under a bill passed by the state senate on Monday. The bill by San Francisco Democrat Mark Leno would supersede a measure passed less than two years ago raising the minimum wage to $10 over the same period. "Despite our recovering economy, millions of Californians, many of them children, continue to live in poverty," Leno said in a statement. "Full-time workers in this state should not be forced onto public assistance simply because they earn the minimum wage." -
Homeboy's $15/hour question: What about jobs for the unemployable?
Jun 2, 2015 | LA Times
By Jon Healey
What does the City Council hope to accomplish by raising the minimum wage in Los Angeles? The obvious answer is something along the lines of, "To lift full-time workers out of poverty." But if that's the goal, why is the council focusing on the wage and not the poverty? -
State Senate backs $13 minimum wage, disclosure of who provides free trips
Jun 1, 2015 | LA Times
By Patrick McGreevy
The state Senate on Monday passed a bill that would raise California's $9 minimum wage to $11 an hour on Jan. 1 and boost it again to $13 in 2017.. Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) made the proposal out of concern that census figures show a quarter of the state's 38 million residents live in poverty, he said. "It is time that we make it illegal to pay sub-poverty wages in California," Leno told his colleagues during a heated floor debate. -
Road wage: How to pay workers who split time inside and outside L.A.?
Jun 1, 2015 | LA Times
By Emily Alpert Reyes
Yet another wrinkle has emerged as Los Angeles lawmakers seek to boost the minimum wage: how businesses will pay employees who split their time inside and outside the city limits. The new rules, slated to be approved by the City Council on Wednesday, would gradually increase pay to at least $15 an hour for any employee who spends at least two hours weekly working in Los Angeles. -
Senate passes minimum wage boost for California
Jun 1, 2015 | The Sacramento Bee
By Alexei Koseff
As labor unions lead a nationwide push for a higher minimum wage, the California Senate on Monday approved raising the state’s required hourly rate to $11 in 2016 and $13 in 2017. -
The Minimum Wage Vote: The Flip Flopped Faster Than a Flapjack
Jun 2, 2015 | City Watch
By Bernard Parks
Parks Place-I thought beggars couldn’t be choosers, but when it comes to the Rusty Hicks Union gang, they ain’t too proud to beg, well, more like demand, what perks they perceive to be rightfully theirs.
Public Hearing / Minimum Wage Coverage
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California Might Raise Its Minimum Wage To $11 An Hour
Jun 1, 2015 | Reuters
By Sharon Bernstein
California's minimum wage would rise to $11 per hour next year under a bill passed by the state senate on Monday.
The bill by San Francisco Democrat Mark Leno would supersede a measure passed less than two years ago raising the minimum wage to $10 over the same period.
"Despite our recovering economy, millions of Californians, many of them children, continue to live in poverty," Leno said in a statement. "Full-time workers in this state should not be forced onto public assistance simply because they earn the minimum wage."
The state's current minimum wage of $9 an hour leaves workers below the federal poverty line for a family of four, Leno said. After raising the minimum wage to $11 in 2016, his bill would hike it again to a minimum of $13 per hour in 2017, and tie it thereafter to the rate of inflation.
It comes amid nationwide concern that pay increases for middle-class and blue-collar workers have been far outstripped by inflation. Seattle recently began implementing a plan to raise the minimum wage there to $15 per hour, and the Los Angeles City Council recently voted to hike that city's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.
Leno's bill, one of a flurry of anti-poverty measures under consideration in the Democratic-controlled legislature this year, would still have to pass the state Assembly and be approved by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.
It is opposed by numerous business organizations including the California Chamber of Commerce.
In 2013, Brown was only willing to sign a law increasing the minimum to $10 if the implementation was put off until 2016.
Some 29 states and Washington, D.C. have minimum wages above the federal minimum of $7.25, and 10 states enacted increases in 2014.
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Homeboy's $15/hour question: What about jobs for the unemployable?
Jun 2, 2015 | LA Times
By Jon Healey
What does the City Council hope to accomplish by raising the minimum wage in Los Angeles?
The obvious answer is something along the lines of, "To lift full-time workers out of poverty." But if that's the goal, why is the council focusing on the wage and not the poverty?
I ask this in light of my colleague David Zahniser's piece Monday about Homeboy Industries seeking a partial exemption from the mandate to pay no less than $15 an hour by 2020. Specifically, the nonprofit wants to exempt workers who spend no more than 18 months in its transitional employment program, which helps former gang members with a combination of on-the-job training and counseling.
Without the exemption, Homeboy warned, it would have to cut its program by more than a third, eliminating 60 of its 170 slots. Bear in mind that this is a transitional program, designed to impart job skills, create references and otherwise help participants go on to better jobs. No one is supposed to spend years in one of these positions, trying to eke out a living while raising a family.
Still, here's what Councilman Curren Price told Zahniser: "Philosophically, I do not feel comfortable saying to transitional workers that, because they have faced challenges in their lives, they deserve to be paid less than every other worker in the city."
That's a fine sentiment for low-skill and entry-level jobs that, sadly, have become long-term occupations for many adult Angelenos. But it doesn't make sense to apply that principle to a training program that's designed to bring unemployable people into the workforce.
Put another way, improving the fortunes of 110 Homeboy Industries trainees for 18 months isn't worth freezing out 60 others who need help just getting started. If your goal is to pull people out of poverty, why would you want to leave so many behind?
And as Zahniser noted, it's not just Homeboy that's at risk. There are a number of programs that combine on-the-job training and social services into a package designed to move people off welfare and into better lives. They're typically funded by donors and, possibly, government grants, and they're no-margin businesses with little ability to cover the huge increase in cost that the higher minimum wage represents.
The most galling aspect of this is the opposition from the L.A. County Federation of Labor, which was one of the driving forces behind the push for $15 and hour. The unions oppose any carve-outs to the higher wage, with one exception: any business that's unionized.
Federation leader Rusty Hicks told Zahniser that such an exception could work for Homeboy too, if its workers could bargain collectively with management. "If those program participants had a say in what their wage would be, then that's a different conversation," Hicks said.
Setting aside the obvious hypocrisy of the federation seeking something for union members that it would deny everyone else, Hicks misses the point of training programs like the one Homeboy offers. The jobs being performed weren't created to fill a demand in the market, they were created to provide a service to the workers themselves. That's why groups such as Homeboy Industries have to raise countless dollars to keep the programs going.
I know, there are plenty of low-margin businesses in Los Angeles that say the higher wage floor will force them to eliminate positions too. City leaders, however, are putting their faith in studies that predict the higher wages will stimulate the local economy, leading businesses to create almost as many jobs as are lost, if not more. Of course, the jobs that are created won't necessarily be filled by the people who get laid off. At any rate, the council is expected to approve the wage hike Wednesday with a one-year delay for very small workforces, and Mayor Eric Garcetti is expected to add his signature.
After initially proposing a waiver for transitional programs like Homeboy, the council decided last month to hold off on that pending further study. Whether unionized workforces are exempted from the higher wage remains to be seen.
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State Senate backs $13 minimum wage, disclosure of who provides free trips
Jun 1, 2015 | LA Times
By Patrick McGreevy
The state Senate on Monday passed a bill that would raise California's $9 minimum wage to $11 an hour on Jan. 1 and boost it again to $13 in 2017.
Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) made the proposal out of concern that census figures show a quarter of the state's 38 million residents live in poverty, he said.
"It is time that we make it illegal to pay sub-poverty wages in California," Leno told his colleagues during a heated floor debate.
He said the wage increase would boost the economy because working families would be able to spend more money. "It's going to be spent immediately to meet daily needs in our community," he said.
The bill passed 23 to 15, on a largely party-line vote.
Sen. Jeff Stone (R-Murrieta) opposed the measure, predicting it would force businesses to cut workers. The proposal "hurts the economy by causing job losses," he said.
Sen. Tom Berryhill (R-Modesto) said minimum wage was never meant to be a wage for families to live on. "It is a start-up wage for kids," he said.
Sen. Connie Lleyva (D-Chino) countered, "There are people trying to support their families living on minimum wage, and it simply doesn't work."
An employee working full time and earning $9 per hour takes home about $18,000 annually before taxes, Leno noted — 75% of the federal poverty level for a family of four.
Two years ago, lawmakers and the governor increased the minimum wage to $10, to begin Jan. 1 of next year. Leno's bill would impose specific raises until 2019 and adjust for inflation thereafter.
Some California cities have raised minimum wages on their own. In Los Angeles, the City Council is set to vote this week on raising the minimum wage to $10.50 on July 1, 2016, and then increasing it gradually to $15 in 2020. San Francisco is phasing in an increase that tops out at $15 in 2018.
Leno's bill, SB 3, now goes to the Assembly.
Also Monday, faced with criticism over free trips to Hawaii and other locales by state lawmakers, the Senate approved a measure that would force disclosure of who picks up the tabs.
The proposal, by Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), would require nonprofit groups that provide gifts of travel to elected state and local officials to disclose the names of the original donors financing the trips. The bill, approved 36 to 1, also would require lawmakers to annually report their destinations.
"Currently, nonprofits do not have to disclose the source of travel funding, preventing the public from knowing who is behind the gift to the elected official," Hill told his colleagues.
State officials accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses as gifts each year. Last year, those included trips to Spain, Portugal, China, Israel, Peru, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico and Canada.
One of the most popular destinations is an annual conference held in Maui by the nonprofit Independent Voter Project, which receives its money from interests including utilities, unions and industry groups, which typically have business before the Legislature.
The legislation, SB 21, next goes to the Assembly.
Also on Monday:
• The Senate passed a measure by Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles that would repeal a rule against welfare benefits for children conceived while their mothers were already receiving aid. The vote on SB 23 was 25 to 6; some Republicans sided with Democrats in favor of the change.
• The Assembly approved a bill to designate high school cheerleading a sport. The bill, AB 949 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), would require the California Interscholastic Federation to develop guidelines and safety standards for competition cheer. It passed 71 to 3.
• The Assembly passed a measure that would enable judges, in a criminal proceeding, to tell the jury whether the court had determined that the prosecutor intentionally failed to disclose evidence. AB 1328 by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) passed 41 to 34.
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Road wage: How to pay workers who split time inside and outside L.A.?
Jun 1, 2015 | LA Times
By Emily Alpert Reyes
Yet another wrinkle has emerged as Los Angeles lawmakers seek to boost the minimum wage: how businesses will pay employees who split their time inside and outside the city limits.
The new rules, slated to be approved by the City Council on Wednesday, would gradually increase pay to at least $15 an hour for any employee who spends at least two hours weekly working in Los Angeles.
That means that some businesses based in Burbank, Glendale, Torrance or other nearby cities will be required to raise wages for the hours their employees spend in L.A. — and that some L.A. employers won't have to pay the higher wages when their workers are toiling outside city limits.
The legal language mirrors wording used in other California cities that have increased wages, such as San Francisco and Oakland. Yet some city leaders are still questioning how it would work. The Los Angeles County Business Federation, also known as BizFed, warned it could be confusing and difficult to track.
"I don't think anyone was prepared for this," BizFed policy manager Dustan Batton said. "It could extend the minimum wage to a plethora of businesses outside of L.A."
Others, including employment attorney Steve Nutter, said the wording would prevent companies that send employees to L.A. jobs — such as construction contractors — from avoiding the wage by setting up their offices outside city limits. If they could, "that would be unfair to the businesses in L.A.," Nutter argued.
Among the workers who stand to benefit is Lekecia Dukes, a 40-year-old mother who said she earns $9 an hour as a caregiver.
Her employer, a corporation with franchises worldwide, sends her to assist elderly clients from Redondo Beach to Mar Vista. Dukes said she earns roughly $600 to $700 a month working part time, logging most of her hours in Los Angeles. Her work can include bathing and dressing seniors, driving them to errands and medical appointments, and doing household chores. She drives her own car from job to job, grabbing cheap meals from McDonald's as she crisscrosses the South Bay.
Her situation "is a good example of why work done in the city of L.A. should be subject to the policy," said Peter Kuhns, L.A. director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, a community organizing group to which Dukes belongs. "Her employer is based outside the city limits, but most of the work she does is inside it."
Dukes has two children — a 9-year-old son and an adult daughter with schizophrenia — and scrapes by with food stamps, canned food given away at a community center and extra cash from recycled cans and jars. When her son needed a retainer, Dukes begged her dentist for a discount and sold her computer to pay for it.
If her late parents hadn't left her their South L.A. house, she said, "I would probably be homeless."
But extending higher wages to anyone who works a few hours weekly in Los Angeles has also generated questions and concerns, including from lawmakers firmly behind the wage increase.
At a Friday hearing, Councilman Paul Krekorian questioned whether a Glendale business that does deliveries in Ventura County would have to pay its driver higher wages for time spent passing through L.A.'s San Fernando Valley. Councilman Paul Koretz added that he was worried that an L.A. employer could duck the wage requirements whenever its workers went outside L.A.
"It never occurred to me that if you were an L.A. company and your employee spent 90% of their time in L.A., they'd only be paid the L.A. minimum wage 90% of the time," Koretz lsaid.
At the hearing, Krekorian asked how the city would be able to enforce such a rule and questioned whether it would be vulnerable to a legal challenge. City lawyers assured council members that the wording would stand up in court, calling it "very standard." Still, the lawmakers insisted that city attorneys report back with more information.
Other cities where minimum wage rules hinge on how many hours an employee works within city limits have spelled out more details: Seattle said that an employee traveling through Seattle from one city to another was not covered by the rules if they did not make "employment-related or commercial stops" besides refueling or personal meals, for instance. Business groups opposed to the L.A. wage increase said tracking hours could become a nightmare. If a worker is driving from job to job, "do you put GPS on their car and start counting the minute they cross the border?" asked Ruben Gonzalez, senior vice president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. "The hallmark of a bad law is that it's very difficult to implement."
Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry & Commerce Assn., said the rules could make it harder for some retail and grocery chains to schedule workers for shifts at multiple stores so that they get enough hours to qualify for benefits. The California Grocers Assn. said in a statement that it was "seeking solutions to the unique scheduling challenges this ordinance will create."
Nutter was skeptical that most employers would find it hard to track the hours their workers spend inside and outside L.A., pointing out that some companies already have to do similar bookkeeping for jobs at Los Angeles International Airport, where a city ordinance imposed pay requirements.
But even some experts who consider the rule reasonable said it could be difficult for L.A. to enforce. The wording indicates "they're taking responsibility for the economic activity happening in their city," said Chris Tilly, director of the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. But "to monitor and enforce this kind of provision is going to be challenging at best."
Wage enforcement is already being eyed with concern: L.A. is planning to initially hire five staffers to investigate claims of underpayment citywide, far fewer than were recommended by a study commissioned by the city. Tilly said the city would probably target prominent companies such as FedEx rather than try to track down "the many, many small companies for whom a tiny fraction of their workforce sets foot in L.A."
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Senate passes minimum wage boost for California
Jun 1, 2015 | The Sacramento Bee
By Alexei Koseff
As labor unions lead a nationwide push for a higher minimum wage, the California Senate on Monday approved raising the state’s required hourly rate to $11 in 2016 and $13 in 2017.
Under Senate Bill 3, which passed by a vote of 23-15, California’s minimum wage would also begin increasing annually in 2019 based on inflation. The measure heads next to the Assembly.
“The president of the United States has defined income inequality as the defining challenge of our time,” said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who authored the measure. “Wages are growing at the slowest rate relative to corporate profits in the history of the United States of America.
“We must do more to address this, and we can.”
Leno pursued a similar minimum wage increase last year that passed the Senate but failed in an Assembly committee.
Since then, several major cities have raised their wage floor, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, which will both reach $15 per hour in the next few years. After joining striking fast-food workers in protest, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said last November he would also explore raising the city’s minimum wage above California’s $9-per-hour rate.
Introducing SB 3, Leno noted that a minimum wage of $13 per hour would equate to about $26,000 per year, just above the federal poverty line. He tried to appeal to Senate Republicans, making the argument that higher wages would lead to greater consumer spending and drive the economy.
“There are thought leaders on the conservative right who support increasing the minimum wage,” Leno said. “We taxpayers subsidize employers who pay sub-poverty wages,” because those workers get public assistance for housing, food and health care.
None were convinced, and they were joined by Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, in voting no on the bill.
“It’s a capitalistic society,” said Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa. “We need to honor the work of those that are creating the jobs, that are paying the taxes ... With a minimum wage increase, you are attacking businesspeople who are subsidizing this state and this nation.”
The California Chamber of Commerce placed SB 3 high on its annual list of “job killers,” bills that the powerful business lobby argues would have a negative economic impact on the state, and their argument was echoed during Monday’s debate.
“Let’s work together to find real solutions to create jobs and lift people out of poverty,” said Sen. Jeff Stone, R-Temecula, “not kill jobs, as this measure would unfortunately do.”
Two other moderate Democrats – Sens. Steve Glazer of Orinda and Cathleen Galgiani of Stockton – left the room during the vote. But the remainder of the caucus carried the bill, speaking passionately about the difficulty that many workers face in supporting their families on low wages.
“There is not honor in going out and working hard and then you got to go beg for” help, said Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles. “When you get out there and get a job, you should have enough money to feed your family. You should have enough money to pay for the roof over your head and decent conditions.”
“The problem is, we want to pick and choose the work that we value,” added Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, the measure’s co-author. “All work has value.”
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The Minimum Wage Vote: The Flip Flopped Faster Than a Flapjack
Jun 2, 2015 | City Watch
By Bernard Parks
Parks Place-I thought beggars couldn’t be choosers, but when it comes to the Rusty Hicks Union gang, they ain’t too proud to beg, well, more like demand, what perks they perceive to be rightfully theirs.
Last week, union members and their troops implored the Council to eventually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by July 1, 2020 (the City Attorney has been instructed to write the minimum wage ordinance and it has to be approved by the Economic Development Committee before it comes back to full Council for a vote).
This week, they’ve come back with their hands out, asking for minimum wage exemptions for companies with unionized workers.
Though I shake my head, I have yet to be astonished or surprised by the gutsiness of this group.
True, I voted in favor of increasing the wage (not without voicing several concerns) with good faith that we could move forward on policy that is, as I’ve said before, measured, spread over several years, surgical enough to benefit the truly needy, yet avoids benefiting those employees that are on minimum wage plus commission.
The ordinance should also concentrate on the city's economy and employees who are residents of the City of Los Angeles, truly balance the needs of both the business owners and the employees, and be accompanied by an extensive job creation program which may include both minimum wage and wages below minimum wage.
My amending motion, which was accepted, placed significant emphasis on the city's job creation efforts by enlisting the resources of the City's Economic Workforce and Development Department (EWDD) through its WorkSource centers to generate jobs at all income levels to compensate for the expected job loss to city residents by the implementation of this ordinance.City News Service reported that Mayor Eric Garcetti, "is open to studying an idea to exclude workers with collective bargaining agreements with their employers from the city's $15 minimum wage ordinance, but stressed it is not in the current draft expected to cross his desk soon."
At a budget signing yesterday, reporters from the Daily News, the LA Times, and City News Service were able to confront the Mayor about this issue and he flip-flopped faster than a flapjack. Read the comments here.
If this ordinance comes back to Council with this added Union sweetening, you won’t have to guess how I’ll vote. I disagreed and voted against this language when it was included in the recently passed hotel minimum wage ordinance.
Accommodations were made for transitional job programs like Homeboy Industries, Chrysalis, and LA Conservation Corps. Additionally, non-profit organizations with greater than 25 employees can apply for a waiver if their top executive earns less than five times the wage of the lowest-paid worker; or provide transitional jobs programs; or serve as child care providers; or are primarily funded by City, County, State, or Federal grants or reimbursements. I guess the LA County Federation of Labor feels they too deserve the same assistance, assistance from a motion they basically authored.They don’t want restaurants to utilize service charges since they fought tooth and nail to ensure tips aren’t included in the new wage ordinance, they want to sneak in paid sick leave without debate, and they want to keep the wage ordinance for hotel workers intact, this is just too much.
It doesn’t help that several articles have pointed out that a $15 an hour wage still won’t be enough to live on in LA. Curbed LA found living in nearly every neighborhood in the city is out of reach on that wage, and FiveThirtyEight said while $15 looks good on paper, in actuality it’ll feel closer to $10.
In another issue that makes you go hmmm, or I told you so, Tuesday the City Administrative Office (CAO) finally released a report, wrapped up in a pretty little bow, detailing the options the City can employ in repairing sidewalks now and in the future since we've been sued.From the report (and homeowners you won’t like it):
"In general, fronting property owners will be responsible for the maintenance of sidewalks in the public right-of-way, even when the cause of the sidewalk damage is a street tree. The City's resources are limited and the City does not have the resources to continue to retain the responsibility for repairing sidewalks damaged by street trees."Property owners also won’t like the fact that the City didn’t plant those trees wrecking sidewalks. More than likely, they were planted by the developer who built your house. Now, why the City recommended ficus trees, I can’t answer that-way before my time.
Most of the proposed plans are not new ideas. They’ve been sitting in various committees for about a decade collecting dust. This Council, and many Councils before, have stubbornly refused to discuss this issue for no other reason than being afraid to tell the public the truth: you gots to pay.
It is my opinion that the City needs to step out of the sidewalk repair game. There are so many unemployed trades, e.g. contractors, concrete pourers, etc. available to do this work who are cheaper, and more efficient than city employees. Property owners should be able to choose on their own which contractor they want to do the work. Just like with earthquake retrofitting, the City can’t pay the bills of a property that’s yours.
The City should solely operate in an inspection, approval, and permitting capacity.
If someone’s sidewalk does not meet safety standards and the owner refuses to repair it at city standards the City should be able to repair it to eliminate the liability then place a lien on the property.
There are many great ideas in the CAO'S report (please read it thoroughly) e.g. point of sale, point of permit, creation of sidewalk repair districts, eliminating the 1970-ish ordinance that moved the responsibility for sidewalk repair from the adjoining property owner to the city. If the city follows through with the CAO'S proposed plans this will be the first time in 40+ years the city will have a comprehensive and coherent sidewalk repair and tree removal program.
I knew, before kicking off my sidewalk repair program with the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative (LANI) in 2014 (my motion was first introduced in 2012), that if you wanted to get sidewalks fixed in the City, you had to take it into your own hands.
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