Bill on Full-, Part-Time Hires Draws Business Fire

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Business groups are lining up against an Assembly bill that would require employers with more than 10 employees to offer current part-time workers more hours before bringing in additional hires or contracting out work.

AB 5 author Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, said the bill’s aim is to boost hours and total pay for part-timers, whose ranks swelled during the recovery from the Great Recession.

“Even as we’ve won increases in the minimum wage to help part-time workers, that just won’t cut it if you can’t get enough hours of work,” she said in a statement introducing the bill.

But business groups say the proposal would severely limit employers’ ability to respond to seasonal changes in demand or to take on short-term projects.

“AB 5 fails to account for many types of businesses such as those that need more employees for less hours rather than less employees for more hours,” the Valley Industry and Commerce Association said in its weekly legislative update. “The bill also strips flexibility from employers who might have higher seasonal demand and will make it harder for people seeking part-time work to find part-time positions.”

There’s one more problem, VICA said in its update: AB 5 isn’t limited to workers at a company’s specific locations. So restaurants, retail stores, and other types of businesses with multiple locations would have to offer more hours to part-time workers in all locations before they add employees or contract workers, regardless of demand.

AB 5 has not yet been set for its first hearing, but the deadline for policy committees to consider nonbudget bills is May 12.

Pro-Business Bills

On the other side of the ledger, several measures have been introduced that are aimed at cutting costs for businesses or otherwise making the lives of business owners easier. Among them:

• AB 600 (Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove) and SB 600 (Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton): A pair of bills sponsored by the California Manufacturers and Technology Association that would extend and boost the sales tax exemption for manufacturing and research and development equipment purchases.

• AB 1715 and AB 1716 (introduced by the Assembly Jobs Committee, chaired by Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Anaheim): The bills would authorize new tax credits for small businesses. AB 1715 targets businesses in low-income communities; AB 1716 targets small manufacturers.

• AB 162 (Quirk-Silva and Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes, D-Corona): Expands the definition of small businesses eligible for California Competes tax credits to include businesses with 50 or fewer employees. The current definition is limited to businesses with annual revenue of less than $2 million. This bill cleared the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee last month and next moves on to the jobs committee.

New Sales Taxes

If it’s the start of a new quarter, that means it’s also the start of sales tax hikes for several Los Angeles County cities.

Sales tax rates increased April 1 in Downey, Lynnwood, and Santa Monica, according to the state Board of Equalization. Downey’s rate rose to 9.25 percent from 8.75 percent, while Lynnwood’s rate went to 9.75 percent from 8.75 percent, and Santa Monica’s jumped to 9.75 percent from 9.25 percent.

But wait, there’s more: Starting July 1, the sales tax rate goes up 0.75 percent for many of the county’s 88 cities and all unincorporated areas. That’s because the Measure M half-cent sales tax for transportation projects and the Measure H quarter-cent sales tax for homeless services go into effect.

Lynnwood, Santa Monica, and Long Beach won’t see the full sales tax hikes because that would push them beyond the 10 percent limit set by the state.

New Area Code

Several cities in the eastern county are slated to get a new area code next year, the 15th covering some part of the county, according to the California Public Utilities Commission.

The new area code, which has yet to be numerically designated, will overlay the existing 909 area code, which is projected to run out of phone numbers in two years. While most of this area code is in the Inland Empire, it takes in the eastern county cities of Industry, Claremont, Diamond Bar, La Verne, Pomona, San Dimas, and Walnut as well as some unincorporated territory.

The commission is scheduled to hold hearings this week on the new area code.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 227.

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