Sept. 15--Los Angeles County supervisors rejected a push to exempt nonprofits and job-training programs from a plan to increase the minimum wage for workers in county-controlled areas to $15 by 2021.
The measure to increase the wage in unincorporated areas was first passed by a split vote in July. The board approved the final language of the plan by the same 3-2 vote Tuesday.
Conservative supervisors Don Knabe and Michael D. Antonovich -- who also opposed the wage increase -- pushed for last-minute exemptions for nonprofits, seasonal workers and workers in job-training programs like Homeboy Industries.
Knabe proposed an exemption that would allow "transitional employment programs" like Homeboy Industries and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps to pay workers less than the new minimum during the first year and a half of employment. The proposal mirrors an exemption approved by the Los Angeles City Council after a similar wage increase plan was approved.
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The training programs "create jobs for people who have to learn or re-learn how to keep and maintain employment," Knabe wrote, like people coming out of jail or homelessness and at-risk youth. "I am concerned that if the county's minimum wage ordinance is wholly applied to these programs, they might be forced to limit the number of program participants they serve."
Antonovich proposed a broader exemption that would cover nonprofits with 25 or fewer employees and seasonal workers.
Without such an exemption, he argued, "nonprofits may be forced to shrink the services they currently provide, reduce staffing, cut back hours of service, or in the worst case, they may have to close their doors permanently."
He argued that many seasonal employees are teenagers or young adults still living at home.
The proposals failed to gain traction with the other board members.
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who led the push for an increased minimum wage, said she does not support exemptions for certain groups of workers. And she pointed out that the major transitional employment organizations are headquartered in the city of Los Angeles and have already been exempted by the council.
The minimum wage "is only one of the tools we will be using, hopefully, to bring our society back more into balance," Kuehl said.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said he also does not support the so-called carve-outs.
"It begins to undercut the minimum wage, which is a basic element of trying to confront the issue of income inequality," he said. "So I frankly don't see setting different standards, that is a different floor, for people in the workforce."
Supervisor Hilda Solis joined Kuehl and Ridley-Thomas in voting against the exemptions.
The new base wage will cover people working for businesses in unincorporated areas of the county as well as county employees.
The county plan does not include an exemption for unionized workers. A proposed union loophole in the city's minimum wage plan has generated controversy.
Business owners made a last-ditch attempt Tuesday to get the board to slow down implementation of the plan or exempt more businesses. Low-wage workers and advocates for the higher wage praised the increase, but urged the board to set up enforcement mechanisms to make sure employers actually pay the required wage.
"Even though we are grateful for the increase in minimum wage, the increased earnings do not become a reality unless there is actual enforcement," said Yanin Senachai, an attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
The minimum wage plan will come back for one final vote next week.
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UPDATE
2:54 p.m.: This post was updated to include details of the final vote.
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