LAX Living Wage Ordinance Rescinded, But Businesses Still Need to Be Aware
On January 31, Los Angeles City Council unanimously rescinded the ordinance that would have applied the city’s living wage ordinance to a select few hotels located on Century Boulevard near LAX under terms of a compromise with city business leaders. However, many questions still exist as to the final terms of the compromise, which includes the drafting of a new ordinance in attempts to assuage some of the local businesses’ primary concerns with the rescinded ordinance. However, business leaders are just realizing that the terms agreed to under a new ordinance do nothing to protect businesses against the concerns they had under the rescinded ordinance.
First, the new ordinance increases the workers’ pay at the dozen or so hotels targeted by the original ordinance to $9.50 an hour upon the passage of the ordinance, and on July 1, 2007, this amount increases to $10.64. Click here for an article in the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Second, the compromise proposes a system for determining whether the living wage could expand in the future based upon the economic effects of such an expansion. The economic effects would be determined by two economists, one selected by the chamber of commerce, and the other selected by the Los Angeles County of Federation of Labor. The primary concern for Los Angeles businesses was that the original rational for extending the living wage ordinance to the hotels on Century Boulevard could be used to extend the living wage to all employers operating in Los Angeles. It appears that the compromise does nothing, or very little, to actually prevent this slippery slope.
Los Angeles business leaders still need to be vigilant as there will be many more battles in this ongoing effort to increase the minimum wage of workers in Los Angeles under the guise of a living wage.
First, the new ordinance increases the workers’ pay at the dozen or so hotels targeted by the original ordinance to $9.50 an hour upon the passage of the ordinance, and on July 1, 2007, this amount increases to $10.64. Click here for an article in the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Second, the compromise proposes a system for determining whether the living wage could expand in the future based upon the economic effects of such an expansion. The economic effects would be determined by two economists, one selected by the chamber of commerce, and the other selected by the Los Angeles County of Federation of Labor. The primary concern for Los Angeles businesses was that the original rational for extending the living wage ordinance to the hotels on Century Boulevard could be used to extend the living wage to all employers operating in Los Angeles. It appears that the compromise does nothing, or very little, to actually prevent this slippery slope.
Los Angeles business leaders still need to be vigilant as there will be many more battles in this ongoing effort to increase the minimum wage of workers in Los Angeles under the guise of a living wage.
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