Mayor Eric Garcetti is expected to announce his proposal to raise the minimum wage to $13.25 an hour in Los Angeles during a rally scheduled for Labor Day.
Community leaders — as well several Los Angeles City Council members — are expected to attend the Monday event, which is being billed on its Facebook invite page as a “rally to address poverty in Los Angeles.”
Among the expected attendees are philanthropist Eli Broad, City Council President Herb Wesson and council members Gil Cedillo, Nury Martinez, Mike Bonin and Curren Price. Representatives of groups such as LAANE and Liberty Hill are also expected to attend.
The mayor has been shopping a plan to local business groups to raise the minimum wage to $13.25 by 2017. The wage would go up by $1.25 the first year, and $1.50 each of the following two years, after which it would be pegged to the cost-of-living.
The minimum wage in California is $9 and set to go up to $10 in 2016.
Los Angeles business leaders this week voiced concern over the plan, but two major business groups have yet to take official stances on the issue.
Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, said the group’s board members will listen to the mayor’s proposal on Monday before taking a position.
Waldman earlier this week said the proposal would hurt some businesses and could result in job loss.
“This is incredible that the mayor would even consider this in this economy,” Waldman said. “We are losing businesses, which are moving out of the city in droves. This will only further activate the flight of businesses and jobs (from) Los Angeles.”
Gary Toebben, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said the feedback from members has “largely been one of concern about what impact this will have on small businesses and nonprofits.”
Toebben said earlier that the recently instituted statewide hike of the minimum wage to $9 and ultimately to $10 “will have less of an impact” than a hike for an individual city.
A city wage increase “doesn’t impact the other 6 million people in the counties, city and other regions around us,” he said.
The mayor’s office would not confirm the specifics of the proposal, but mayoral aide Jeff Millman issued a statement saying officials have been meeting with business leaders, as well as “labor, community and faith leaders” to talk about “ways to help L.A. families and our economy thrive.”
One of the mayor’s goals is to “lift Angelenos out of poverty,” he said.
Connie Llanos, an aide for Councilman Curren Price, who has suggested that a citywide minimum wage hike be instituted, said “we’re excited” to have a “conversation” about poverty in Los Angeles.
The council has been working on a plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour at large hotels.
Councilman Mike Bonin, who spearheaded the effort, said earlier that if the mayor were to officially come out with a proposal, he would “embrace it, welcome it, champion it and do everything I could to get it passed by the council.”
“I’d also say if the mayor does propose it, I think it will get a lot of support among the City Council and it will have broad-based support from labor, business, faith, communities and political leaders,” he said.
Bonin noted that he has heard support for raising the minimum wage from several people in the business community, adding that he has also been discussing “various strategies to reduce business taxes” with the mayor.
Businessman and philanthropist Eli Broad also threw his support behind raising the minimum wage citywide, saying “if Los Angeles is to maintain our standing as a world-class city, we need to increase the minimum wage.”
“Raising the minimum wage would help lift people out of poverty and stimulate our local economy,” he said.
The $13.25 minimum wage plan also drew support from Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.
Her group is pushing for the $15 minimum wage for hotel workers.
“I’m very glad to hear the mayor would be interested in increasing the minimum wage,” she said. “We’ve been working on increasing wages. We know that there has been a tremendous growth of poverty wage jobs.”
A group of activists is also hoping to get an initiative on the ballot to raise the minimum wage to $15 for all workers in the city.
— City News Service