July 21--The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, leaders of the nation's largest local government, voted Tuesday to raise the minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 over the next few years in county unincorporated areas.
The higher wage would apply to county workers but also those laboring in county-controlled unincorporated areas. The action follows an identical increase adopted by the city of Los Angeles in June.
The vote was 3-2 to approve the wage for workers in unincorporated areas of the county, with Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Don Knabe casting the opposing ballots. They contended that a higher wage would put too much pressure on businesses.
But in raising the wage for county government workers, Knabe joined Supervisors Sheila Kuehl, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Hilda Solis in voting in favor of the increase.
The widely anticipated votes could put the greater Los Angeles area on track to have a $15-an-hour regional wage -- or leave workers facing a patchwork system in which some of the 87 independent cities in the county move to a higher wage while others hold out.
Supporters packed the Hall of Administration board room on Tuesday, with T-shirts and signs saying, "Fight for $15."
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti applauded the county's move, saying, "The nation is watching what we do here in Los Angeles as a region."
But some small business leaders expressed strong opposition.
"This will cost jobs," chef Michael Shafer told the supervisors, adding that he would need to reduce the workforce at his two Torrance restaurants. He said it would affect more than the employees he would lay off -- it also would cut into the number of charities he can afford to support by donating food and services.
Though many business representatives remained unhappy about the anticipated increase, some thanked the supervisors for also moving to set up a small business transition team to come up with strategies to ease the process. With some details of the plan remaining to be determined, they advocated for exemptions for teenage employees, nonprofits providing job training and seasonal workers.
"We understand it's moving forward, and we hope we can be a voice to ensure the best possible [plan] for all," said Tracy Rafter, founding chief executive of the Los Angeles County Business Federation.
The supervisors initially considered the wage hike last month, but postponed a vote when Solis, a labor ally who had been expected to support the measure, asked for more time to address the concerns of small businesses.
Solis said last week that she is ready to move forward after county staff gathered more information from small businesses in unincorporated areas, including the East Los Angeles area in her district, which has busy commercial strips of largely Latino-owned businesses, many of which had pushed back against the proposed increase.
Along with the city's pay increase, the vote to bump the minimum wage in county unincorporated areas will mean that half of the county workforce will be covered by the $15 hourly wage by 2021. The increase would also cover people working for the county, which employs about 100,000 people.
It remains to be seen how many other local jurisdictions will follow suit. Some cities, such as Santa Monica and West Hollywood, are already considering their own wage increases. And Pasadena Mayor Terry Tornek said his City Council will begin discussions next week on a process to study their own wage increase.
"I think we should be supportive of this regional effort," Tornek said, adding that his city wanted to wait until the city of Los Angeles and the county moved. "I thought they could do a lot of the homework, quite frankly, so we didn't have to reinvent the wheel."
But other cities are taking a wait-and-see attitude or are actively opposed to raising the wage. Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said his city is still recovering from the recession and can't afford a wage hike. And he said businesses in the adjoining unincorporated areas have been inquiring about annexing into the city.
"I think it will put those businesses at a distinct disadvantage and people will now shop in town," he said.
In Glendale, Mayor Ara Najarian said city officials are in a "wait-and-see mode."
"I think the city of Glendale is fortunate enough to be in the situation where we can sit back and watch this measure take effect [in the city and county of Los Angeles] and actually have empirical evidence as to what the impact is," he said.
Times staff writer Jean Merl contributed to this post.
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UPDATE
3:08 p.m.: This post was updated with the vote.
