Preview Newsletter
AH&LA Media Monitoring - 6/15 Report
-
Why the $15 minimum wage got my 'no' vote
Jun 15, 2015 | LA Times
By Mitchell Englander
On June 10, I cast the City Council's lone “no” vote on the $15-an-hour minimum wage proposal. While everyone agrees that there is genuine poverty in the city of Los Angeles, no wage increase can be high enough to offset the effect of job loss or reduced working hours that will result from a remedy that puts the complete burden on the backs of business. -
Garcetti signs into law $15 minimum wage for Los Angeles
Jun 13, 2015 | My News LA
By Chris Jennewein
Mayor Eric Garcetti signed into law Saturday a measure that raises the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 per hour by 2020 for hundreds of thousands of workers. With the mayor’s signature, the city, with 3.8 million residents, becomes the biggest in the country with a $15 minimum wage ordinance, though the first increase to $10.50 per hour is not set to take place until July 2016. -
Los Angeles mayor enacts $15-an-hour minimum wage
Jun 14, 2015 | USA Today
By Chris Woodyard
In becoming the largest city in the country to mandate a $15-an-hour minimum wage, Los Angeles could put the pressure on other cities in what is sure to become a potent issue in next year's presidential election. -
Los Angeles raises minimum wage to $15 per hour
Jun 14, 2015 | Associated Press
Mayor Eric Garcetti signed into law on Saturday an ordinance that makes Los Angeles the biggest city in the nation to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He called the law "a major victory for our city" at a signing ceremony in south Los Angeles, and said the wage increases will enable working families to lift themselves out of poverty.
Public Hearing / Minimum Wage Coverage
Regional News
National News
Full Text of Stories Below
-
Why the $15 minimum wage got my 'no' vote
Jun 15, 2015 | LA Times
By Mitchell Englander
On June 10, I cast the City Council's lone “no” vote on the $15-an-hour minimum wage proposal. While everyone agrees that there is genuine poverty in the city of Los Angeles, no wage increase can be high enough to offset the effect of job loss or reduced working hours that will result from a remedy that puts the complete burden on the backs of business.
Having been both a business owner and a low-wage service worker, I know firsthand about the struggles that business owners and their employees face every day. I've had days when paying my employees meant that I did not take my own paycheck.
This wage increase may hurt the very people it is designed to help. Most minimum wage jobs are in low profit-margin industries or small businesses that are easily relocated to one of more than two dozen cities bordering Los Angeles. Many of these cities have minimum wages substantially lower than $15 an hour. This competitive disadvantage doesn't support local job creation or retention.
BloombergView referred to the City Council's minimum wage vote as “L.A.'s Minimum Wage Experiment.” My colleagues on the council have expressed their hope for this experiment's success, but I have to note what the possibility of failure may bring.
Representatives of both the business and nonprofit/charitable communities testified that they will be forced to reduce hours or staff size to comply with the new policy. Some job providers testified that they will be required to make tough choices on reducing or even discontinuing worker protections, including employee pension and healthcare benefits. What then for low-wage workers?
The wage increase may not help low-income workers as much as proponents claim. Beacon Economics reported that “less than one in four dollars paid out by Los Angeles City businesses and consumers through this plan will actually benefit the workers who are targeted.”
Moreover, until the region gets serious about creation of affordable housing, a $15 minimum wage will not enable workers to live locally and use their increased buying power here. The average apartment rental in the city is more than $2,000 a month and, according to affordable housing advocates, requires a salary of $33 an hour if the occupant is spending just 30% of a paycheck on housing.
Minimum-wage increases by themselves do nothing to expand the middle class. In order to do this we need to create an educated workforce, bringing back trade training and shop classes to our high schools and encouraging a clear and affordable pathway from two-year colleges to four-year universities and beyond.
On the city's part, we need to eliminate the draconian gross receipts tax and raise the small-business tax exemption to $500,000 from $100,000. We also need to create an incentive for hiring local workers that was lost when the state's Enterprise Zone designation was eliminated.
The very last thing that we should be doing as a city is creating a competitive disadvantage for our businesses with those in neighboring cities. That move can only hurt job creators and reinforce the belief that Los Angeles is closed for business.
I voted no on the increase because cost-benefit analyses show that the disproportionate burden to business is not balanced by a guaranteed benefit to the impoverished, or to the local economy.
The solutions to poverty in Los Angeles require all sectors — public, private and nonprofit — to have skin in the game to benefit everyone. This means an ardent commitment to exponentially increasing affordable housing in the region, to providing tax incentives for job creators to hire local workers, and to educating a workforce destined for middle-class careers, not long-term minimum wage jobs.
-
Garcetti signs into law $15 minimum wage for Los Angeles
Jun 13, 2015 | My News LA
By Chris Jennewein
Mayor Eric Garcetti signed into law Saturday a measure that raises the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 per hour by 2020 for hundreds of thousands of workers.
With the mayor’s signature, the city, with 3.8 million residents, becomes the biggest in the country with a $15 minimum wage ordinance, though the first increase to $10.50 per hour is not set to take place until July 2016.
Garcetti — along with labor leaders, city council members and other supporters of the measure — held a signing ceremony at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, where he officially announced last Labor Day that he wanted to raise the minimum wage to $13.25 per hour.
“I’m ecstatic. I mean, this was a coalition of business, labor, community, religious leaders,” Garcetti told ABC7. “It took everybody coming together but we did it in less than a year and I think it’s going to inspire the country to follow suit.”
Garcetti said last week that with the City Council’s adoption of the ordinance, “the minimum wage will no longer be a poverty wage in Los Angeles. The council voted 12-1 Wednesday to give final approval to the wage hike ordinance, with Councilman Mitchell Englander casting the dissenting vote.
Under the ordinance, the city minimum wage will increase to $10.50 per hour in July 2016 for businesses with 26 or more employees, with a one-year delay for smaller businesses. By 2016, the state minimum wage will have risen to $10 per hour.
The wage will then go up to $12 an hour by July 2017, $13.25 per hour by July 2018, $14.25 per hour by July 2019 and ultimately to $15 by July 2020.
Businesses with 25 or fewer employees will start raising their wages one year later and have until 2021 to reach the $15-an-hour mark.
Once the wage reaches $15 per hour for both small and large employers, the ordinance calls for the minimum wage in 2022 to continue increasing based on the cost of living.
City officials are still considering possible amendments to the wage law, such as a proposed exemption from the $15 minimum wage for workers covered under collective bargaining agreements.
Labor leaders who led the campaign to raise the minimum wage are pushing for inclusion of the exemption from the wage for their own union members. They say the provision is a “standard” part of wage laws in many other cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and San Diego, and contend the provision is aimed at respecting existing collective bargaining agreements, as well as giving employers and workers wiggle room to reach the best labor agreement for both sides.
However, business leaders who had opposed the wage increase say the same people who wanted the minimum wage hike in Los Angeles now want to their own union members to be given a “sub-minimum” wage. They pointed to Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law, which does not have an exemption for unionized workers.
The council may also consider a motion by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell that calls for an exemption for employers with 50 or fewer workers “that provide their employees benefit packages that are equal to or exceed the citywide minimum wage.”
The City Council is also expected to consider including a requirement for employers to provide paid leave to workers, and a provision that would require employers to pass service charges on to the employee who performs the task.
Homeboy Industries, a group that runs transitional employment programs, also is urging the City Council to give it a reprieve from the city wage over the 18-month duration of its program.
Members of the council additionally are looking for more clarity on what constitutes an employee in Los Angeles.
The ordinance defines an employee as someone who works at least two hours within Los Angeles city limits, which means businesses located outside the city could potentially be paying the higher wages for hours their employees work within Los Angeles.
-
Los Angeles mayor enacts $15-an-hour minimum wage
Jun 14, 2015 | USA Today
By Chris Woodyard
In becoming the largest city in the country to mandate a $15-an-hour minimum wage, Los Angeles could put the pressure on other cities in what is sure to become a potent issue in next year's presidential election.
Mayor Eric Garcetti signed the measure into law Saturday. It will require employers to gradually raise minimum wages until they reach $15 an hour. The first step comes in July, 2016, when the minimum wage becomes $10.50. Then, each following year, it will rise another another step -- $12, $13.50, $14.25 and then $15.
In a city where it's easy to take notice of the relatively high wages for many in the entertainment industry, the higher minimum wage is aimed at lifting the millions who work in service- and food-related jobs -- the maids, fast-food employees and others.
"LA as a whole will benefit from this boost: We have always prospered the most when everyone is able to spend money into our economy," Garcetti said.
Los Angeles follows Seattle and San Francisco, among others, in raising the minimum wage. Last year, Chicago passed a phased-in minimum wage increase to $13 an hour. Depending on whether inflation kicks up, Los Angeles' law could be eclipsed by the state. California's Legislature is weighing a bill to raise the minimum wage to $13 in 2017 and step it up after that based on inflation.
As the movement builds, the issue is sure to play out in the presidential contest. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has been endorsing a higher minimum wage, but there are questions as to whether she yet backs $15 an hour.
-
Los Angeles raises minimum wage to $15 per hour
Jun 14, 2015 | Associated Press
Mayor Eric Garcetti signed into law on Saturday an ordinance that makes Los Angeles the biggest city in the nation to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
He called the law "a major victory for our city" at a signing ceremony in south Los Angeles, and said the wage increases will enable working families to lift themselves out of poverty.
"LA as a whole will benefit from this boost: We have always prospered the most when everyone is able to spend money into our economy," Garcetti said.
The law will boost the minimum wage to $10.50 in July 2016, followed by annual increases to $12, $13.25, $14.25 and $15. Small businesses and certain nonprofits get an extra year to phase in the increases.
Calls for raising the minimum wage have grown as the nation struggles with fallout from the recession, worsening income inequality, persistent poverty and the challenges of immigration and the global economy.
Seattle and San Francisco also have phased-in minimum wage laws that eventually require hourly pay of $15 an hour, or annual pay of about $31,200 for a full-time job. Last year, Chicago passed a phased-in minimum wage increase to $13 an hour.
Last week, the California Senate approved a plan to raise the statewide minimum wage again, lifting it to $13 an hour in 2017 and tying it to the rate of inflation after that.
Public Hearing / Minimum Wage Coverage
Regional News
National News
Full Text of Stories Below
Add recipients
Suggested