Part-time workers and those who work out of their homes would be entitled to the same benefits and pay scales as their full-time counterparts under legislation backed by organized labor.
The bill, SB 1968 by Sen. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, would require employers with 20 or more workers to give equal pay to part-time employees and home-based workers.
Employers also would have to offer most of these workers the same health and additional compensation benefits they provide to their full-time employees.
The state Senate Appropriations Committee voted last week to consider the bill late next month when it looks at an array of budget-related measures, because SB 1968 would require state funding to pursue wage claims.
Solis is carrying the bill at the urging of the California Federation of Labor, which proposed it in the wake of the United Parcel Service strike last summer. A major issue in that strike was the company’s increasing use of part-time workers who are not paid benefits.
“For too long, we have ignored the needs of the part-time worker,” said Elizabeth Ecks, a lobbyist for the California Federation of Labor. “Part-time workers have become the invisible workforce.”
The California Chamber of Commerce and the California chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business have labeled the bill a “job-killer,” and are lobbying hard to defeat it.
“This bill is one of the bigger anti-business bills that has been introduced this year,” said Julie Broyles, labor issues lobbyist with the California Chamber of Commerce.
Part-time employment defined as working less than 35 hours a week has been the fastest-growing segment of the national workforce since the late 1960s, according to U.S. Department of Labor.
In 1995, part-time workers received, on average, 73 percent of hourly wages paid to full-time workers. Only 15 percent of part-time workers received health benefits, compared with 70 percent of full-time workers. And only 12 percent of part-time workers were part of a pension plan, compared with 50 percent of full-time workers.
The Legislative Counsel’s report did not have any figures for part-time workers in California, nor did the state Employment Development Department. However, part-time and home-based workers have flourished in the L.A. area, especially in the entertainment and technology sectors. Many of these workers go from contract to contract; some string together several part-time jobs simultaneously.
The Solis bill would exempt all employers with fewer than 20 employees from having to pay part-time workers equal wages and benefits.
This would exempt 88 percent of the state’s 937,164 employers. However, the bill would cover 77 percent of the state’s 10.3 million employees.
The exemptions have not satisfied business groups.
“Benefits, except for required benefits like workers’ compensation, have traditionally been used by employers to attract and retain workers,” Broyles said. “If you go about trying to mandate how businesses provide benefits, you take away that ability to attract workers. This would end up hurting the very people Sen. Solis is trying to help.”
