City Council To Consider Plan To Hike LA's Minimum Wage After Committee Gives OK
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A plan to increase the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 an hour over the next five years was approved Wednesday by a City Council committee.
The Economic Development Committee unanimously approved the proposal, which would provide a framework to raise the minimum wage with year-by-year increases, if approved.
"It's a landmark piece of legislation not just for our city, not just for our county or our state, but for the nation," Councilman Curren Price (D-Los Angeles) said. "This is a national movement and I'm glad that LA is moving right to the top of that list."
Under the proposal, which will head to the full City Council for consideration, the increases would take place on the first of July of each year, starting in 2016, when the minimum wage would go from $9 per hour to $10.50 an hour.
The rate would jump to $12.00 in 2017; $13.25 in 2018; $14.25 in 2019; and $15.00 by 2020.
For small businesses with 25 or fewer employees, each of the dates would be moved back by one year.
In Los Angeles, 800,000 people live below the poverty line and 500,000 workers are earning minimum wage.
"Over 60 percent of households in my neighborhood lives on public subsidies like food stamps and public subsidized housing and I feel like this is a step in the right direction to support the hard work that we've been doing in our community," Tim McDaniel, Jr., a Watts Neighborhood Councilmember, said.
Mark Escheverria, whose family owns the famous Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood, says he favors increasing the minimum wage. But, he says, when it rises to $14 and higher, he may have to lay off up to half of his staff, which he doesn't want to do.
"I would be forced to have to cut down on my day parts, meaning cut down on lunch cause lunch just doesn't turn in the revenue that we would need to sustain the increase in minimum wage, which would be a result of losing 30 to 50 percent of our workforce," he said. "And these guys are our family."
Maneva Currie, a member of the Alliance for Californians for Community Empowerment and a strong supporter of raising the minimum wage, says the five years it will take to get the rate to $15.00 an hour is waiting too long for too little.
"For me, it's like we're playing catch-up," she said. "These large corporations, they can afford it. They've been underpaying their employees for so many years, there should be some reserve."
Other cities like San Francisco and Seattle have already passed plans similar to the proposal in L.A.
The plan is expected to go before the full City Council to begin consideration as early as next week.
