Some workers in Brentwood area businesses will already receive a bump in pay come July 1, when the State’s minimum wage jumps to $9 per hour. Los Angeles Councilman Mike Bonin joined Curren Price in introducing a resolution to the dais calling for the council to support a State Senate bill proposing to raise the minimum wage to $13 per hour by 2017.
The legislation, Senate Bill 935 (SB 935) would alter already mandated increases to the State minimum wage law, which not only raised the hourly rate to $9 this year but also to $10 per hour by 2016.
Council members unanimously voted on April 8 to support Mark Leno’s bill, which cleared the State Senate’s Labor and Industrial Relations Committee last month.
The council’s vote was 12 to 0, with three absences, in favor of supporting SB 935.
As the already mandated increase currently stand, California is on pace to have the highest minimum wage rate in the country when the hourly rate reaches $10 in 2016. Leno’s proposed law could make the potential record even higher.
If adopted by the State legislature and signed into law by the governor’s office, SB 935 would increase the minimum wage in three phases between now and 2017 before creating annual adjustments in 2018.
Specifically, the minimum wage under Leno’s proposal would increase to $11 per hour by 2015. In 2016, the hourly rate would increase again to $12 before topping off at $13 per hour in 2017.
Beginning in 2018, the minimum wage would be adjusted annually to the rate of inflation, according to Leno’s proposed law.
The resolution introduced by Bonin and Price stated SB 935 was introduced “to help lift Californians out of poverty by further raising the state’s minimum wage.”
“An increase in minimum wage would benefit low-wage workers and businesses throughout California due to a possible increase in consumer spending,” the resolution stated. “The City of Los Angeles should support legislation that reduces income inequality for its residents and stimulates economic growth.”
The State of Washington currently owns the highest minimum wage rate in the country, with the State legislature there mandating an hourly rate of $9.32. Similar to Leno’s proposal, the minimum wage increases yearly based on inflation.
A report by the City’s Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) found about half of California’s workers are on an hourly wage scale, with an estimated 50 percent of that group earn less than $12 per hour.
According to the resolution, the LAO further found that “hourly workers earning less than $12 per hour, tend to be concentrated in service-oriented industries such as educational and health services, leisure and hospitality, and wholesale and retail trade.”
Leno’s bill was premised on a Census Bureau report stating about 24 percent of California’s 38 million residents live in poverty.
The current minimum wage of $8 per hour yields an annual salary of $15,360 before taxes, almost $8,500 below the federal poverty line for a family of four with a single-wage earner.
According to a statement released by Leno’s office, the National Women’s Law Center found nearly six out of 10 minimum wage workers in California are women.
While the city council officially backed SB 935, another proposal in front of them could establish a living wage as high as $15.37 per hour for hotel employees.
Bonin, Price, and councilwoman Nury Martinez proposed the hotel employee livable wage proposal, which would apply to lodging institutions with more than 100 rooms.
How SB 935 or any similar proposal would directly impact Brentwood area businesses has not yet been determined. Brentwood News will track the proposed law through the legislature and study its potential impacts on companies who have operations here.
Bonin represents Council District 11 at City Hall, which includes Brentwood.
