June 16--Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to raise the wage of about 140,000 home healthcare workers paid through a state program partially funded by the county.
Their pay will go to $11.18 an hour from $9.65 over the next year and a half.
It was the first major decision on salaries made since a new board majority took office in December. It also marked the first time the board had suspended a fiscal rule put in place by the outgoing board last year that requires a four-fifths supermajority on votes to increase worker pay and benefits.
The vote on the home care workers' pay could foreshadow the outcome of a pending proposal by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl to follow the city of Los Angeles' lead and raise the minimum wage for county workers and those laboring in unincorporated areas to $15 by 2020 from the current $9. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said he also plans to soon propose increasing the "living wage" paid to county contractors.
"I do believe that there is a readiness to address income inequality in the county of Los Angeles," Ridley-Thomas said.
The home care workers -- who would not have been covered by a county minimum wage hike -- have packed board meetings over the last several weeks to push for a raise to $15 an hour. They were hoping to see the county pass a plan before July 1, when the state will take over responsibility for bargaining on in-home workers' contracts.
The proposal by Ridley-Thomas and Supervisor Hilda Solis that was approved Tuesday will only increase the workers' pay to $11.18, but will do so on a faster timeline than the proposed increases of the minimum wage.
Ridley-Thomas and Solis said their intent was to put the home care workers on a "path to $15."
The state, which splits the cost of the home care workers' pay with the county, will not pay for increases above $11.18 unless the cap is raised by legislation. County budget officials said this month that a raise to $15.25 an hour for the workers would cost county taxpayers an additional $374.1 million annually by 2017-18.
With the state and federal government paying a portion of the wages, the increase to $11.18 an hour is estimated to cost the county an additional $11.9 million in the 2015-16 fiscal year and an additional $30.6 million in 2016-17.
Laphonza Butler, president of SEIU ULTCW, the United Long Term Care Workers' Union, said, "It's a proud day for Los Angeles home care workers. They've been behind for so long."
Supervisor Don Knabe offered an alternative proposal under which the home care workers' wages would follow the increases in the minimum wage until they reach $11.18. Knabe said the approach would be "more fiscally prudent than raising wages on a more aggressive basis."
That proposal failed, with Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich voting for it and the other three opposing it.
Knabe said he thought suspending the fiscal policy that required a supermajority vote for salary increases would send the wrong message to credit rating agencies that monitor the county's fiscal health.
"I really think it's a bad precedent," he said. "This is an issue we worked hard on to make sure we have the proper credit ratings."
The policy was seen as an attempt to guard against excessive spending by a new, more labor-friendly board majority.
The board voted 3 to 2 to suspend the policy, with Antonovich and Knabe voting against doing so. But Antonovich then joined Ridley-Thomas, Kuehl and Solis in voting in favor of the pay increase, with Knabe casting the only opposing vote.
