Bowing to the inevitability that Long Beach officials will soon vote to raise the minimum wage, business groups there are rallying around a proposal to increase the figure to $12.50 an hour by 2020 instead of $15.
The Long Beach Council of Business Associations, comprising several business improvement districts and the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, last month put forward the proposal, which would allow employers to include the value of health and leave benefits as part of their minimum-wage payouts. It was officially endorsed by the chamber last week and calls for a one-year extension for small businesses and a two-year extension for nonprofits.
Labor unions and their allies, however, want to raise the wage to $15 an hour by 2020. Both the county and city of Los Angeles have adopted the $15-an-hour target, with one-year extensions for small businesses and no inclusion of the value of health and leave benefits.
The Long Beach Economic Development Commission is set to consider various wage-hike proposals at its Jan. 6 meeting and might vote then to recommend a wage increase to the City Council.
The council is expected to take up the wage issue in the next couple of months, and a majority of the nine members is generally considered to be receptive to the union proposal to raise the wage to $15 an hour.
In making its minimum-wage proposal of $12.50 an hour with benefits, the Long Beach Council of Business Associations relied on a survey compiled on contract by S. Groner Associates Inc. of Long Beach. That survey of more than 400 Long Beach businesses and nonprofits found slightly higher levels of support for phasing in a hike over five years with an end target of $12.50 an hour instead of $15.
“Based on these findings, COBA is proposing a middle way forward,” said Kraig Kojian, chief executive of the Downtown Long Beach Associates, a COBA member. “Many in the business community just want to say no – period. Labor is saying $15 without conditions. We are saying there is a middle path that will help workers and minimize the harm to small businesses, nonprofits or the other workers that may have their jobs cut to make room for the increase.”
In deciding to endorse this plan, the Long Beach chamber said it had long been uncomfortable with a hike to $15 an hour and that this is a better alternative.
“From the outset we were very concerned about the $15 an hour as passed in Los Angeles due to the perception that this number just came out of thin air,” said Jeremy Harris, the chamber’s senior vice president for government affairs. “We’ve asked the question time and time again, why $15?”
Harris also said that with the current makeup of the council, passage of a wage hike is inevitable.
“We need to make sure our businesses are protected and $12.50 as compared to $15 helps to ensure that,” he said.
Neither the Los Angeles County Labor Federation nor the union-allied Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy could be reached for comment on the $12.50-an-hour proposal.
