[KHTS] – Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to raise the minimum wage in stages from $9 to $15 an hour by 2020. Supervisor Mike Antonovich voted “no.”
The wage hike applies only to the county’s unincorporated territories (including Stevenson Ranch, Castaic, Agua Dulce, Acton) and not to incorporated cities such as Santa Clarita.
The minimum wage hike will increase yearly for all nonprofits and businesses with 26 or more employees beginning July 1, 2016 to $10.50, July 1, 2017 to $12, July 1, 2018 to $13.25, July 1, 2019 to $14.25 and July 1, 2020 to $15, according to the agenda.
The minimum wage for companies and nonprofits with fewer than 26 employees will have a little bit longer than the larger companies to prepare for the wage hike, according to the agenda. Beginning July 1, 2017 the minimum wage will be raised to $10.50 hourly, July 1, 2018 to $12, July 1, 2019 to $13.25, July 1, 2020 to $14 and July 1, 2021 to $15.
“Regardless of definition, many L.A. County residents who work full-time earn wages that do not cover the basic costs of living, which should provide for safe housing, healthy food, clothing and basic medical care,” according to the motion by Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis, in a previous story. “The current minimum wage in Los Angeles County is $9.00 an hour, set by state law, which equates to $18,000 a year for a full-time employee.”
On July 1, 2022, the minimum wage will be increased annually and will be based on the average Consumer Price Index over the previous 20 years, according to the agenda. The County’s Chief Executive Office officials will determine the rate annually on January 1.
According to the county’s findings, zero percent of the employers surveyed said they planned to close their business due to raising the minimum wage, six percent of employers thought it was even somewhat likely they would reduce the number of minimum-wage employees and 71 percent of the employers thought it would be unlikely they would reduce the work hours of their minimum wage employees.
Supervisor Michael Antonovich voiced opposition for the minimum wage increase.
“Minimum wage is an entry-level. Most of us, I know, started with a minimum wage job when we were in high school and college,” Antonovich said. “Six Flags (Magic Mountain) is one of the major employers of youth in the county of Los Angeles. many of our foster children are hired by Six Flags. You’re going to have a loss of revenue when they annex to the city of Santa Clarita.”
More than 100 speakers were listed to voice their opinions on the agenda items proposing a minimum wage increase.
While many speakers supported the minimum wage increase, several speakers at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting said the minimum wage increase would force them to lay off employees and some even said they would have to close their business’ doors.
“We have businesses in the city of Santa Clarita that have some of their facilities in the unincorporated (part of) town and some of their facilities in the city. It creates a lot of complication for them of how they are going to administer and implement this wage increase, creating this great disparity,” said Holly Schroeder, president and CEO of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation.
Schroeder added that wages could become complicated if an employee is working on the north side of the I-5, which is in the city of Santa Clarita, and then goes and works on the south side of the I-5, which is in the unincorporated part of Los Angeles County. “There are a tremendous number of details that need to be worked out, a lot of questions. We look forward to working with you and please give this a lot of thought.”
Terri Crain, president and CEO of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce spoke about how the minimum wage increase would affect the towns of Castaic and Val Verde.
“The town of Castaic is a mecca for small business, mom and pop shops. They’ve lost two large supermarkets and an abundance of fast food restaurants which is a loss of jobs,” Crain said. “This is before this initiative takes place. The burden of these higher wages is going to fall on mom and pops who are already overtaxed physically and emotionally and overburdened financially.
“Also within the town of Val Verde, Val Verde is served by Sam Dixon Health Care. They will have to close their facility in this town of Val Verde, which is an impoverished community within L.A. County in the fifth district. I urge you to take into consideration the small outlying communities within LA County as well as the agricultural communities in north LA County, Palmdale, Lancaster area. This impacts more than just small pockets within the bigger picture.”
One business owner said he will have to close his Castaic location with a minimum wage increase.
“Most of my employees are high school students,” the business owner said. “They are part-time employees and high school students. I do have a place in Castaic and that would be the first place I close. It is barely holding on. How can you impose something so drastic to us.”
Kevin Korenthal, of the Forged By Fire nonprofit in Santa Clarita said “minimum wage increase will negatively impact the ability of disabled people and veterans to get jobs.”
AMS Fulfillment CEO and Managing Partner Ken Wiseman also appeared before the Board of Supervisors, describing how of his eight operations in the Santa Clarita Valley, six of them are going to be impacted by this decision and two are not.
“What you’re doing is going to make me change how I manage my business. I’m looking to move operations outside of the area impacted by your decision,” Wiseman said. “I’m actively trying to help with the annexation of the Commerce Center into Santa Clarita because Santa Clarita, to the best of my understanding, isn’t going to follow suit. They’re going to benefit from all the businesses that are going to want to relocate on the east side of the I-5.”
The city of Santa Clarita City Council is not currently considering a minimum wage increase, said city of Santa Clarita Spokeswoman Gail Morgan.
In California, the cities of San Jose, San Diego, Berkeley, Richmond, Oakland and San Francisco have raised wages over the past year, according to the agenda.
The report of the findings from the research to raise the county’s minimum wage can be found [here].
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57 Comments
These people should be removed from office
I can’t wait till they realize everything will go up so really it won’t matter lol
Educate ur self get a better job you will be sad when milk is 7.50 a gallon lol good luck with that. I learned a job skill and make a killing at what I do because I want a better life. Free hand outs flipping burgers good luck
Your the reason I just laid off 5 employees. Lol
Finding a job will become 10times harder, companies will remove work force and pile more on less workers. Your logic is flawed.
I would find another job. That is what I’m doing. I learned a new trade, obviously taking classes over the years never will pay out. When this passes, a burger flipper will be making more than I am now. Find a trade that is not going to be outsourcer taken over by computers. They are out there. It’s worth the research.
And now your job and many others are going to become obsolete because they will hire machines to do your job!
Take a look at jack n the box and many others where you can walk in the door and place your order on their digital kiosk….
This is your future at $15 an hr.
Its cheaper and doesn’t require benefits or a schedule.
So your logic in defense of this movement is flawed!!!
Get an education or skill and work hard at it to make a future because $15 an hour only ensures more layoffs and company relocations overseas!!!
Good luck with your thoughts of a grand future though!
You celebrate it now…
then when you get laid off and replaced by a machine or your job outsourced to another country listen quietly because you will be able to hear all of the people who have actually been in the work force for a few more years than you whispering “I told you so!”
So don’t go crying about it then. Just pick your ars up and go get a skill or an education like Mr Jim Oge Jr told you!!!
Obviously if he owns his own successful business, he may just know a little bit about what he’s talking about!!!
Well Stephen maybe if you looked into it a little you can find things like the BOG waiver (making school almost essentially free at a community college minus the cost of books), or grants, student loans, scholarships!!!
But don’t expect the world to buy a $15 burger because you don’t want to find a marketable skill or an education! There are plenty of ways to make it happen.
Look into the BOG waiver for starters!!
But excuses don’t make hard workers!!
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1436183066699972&id=100009248778635
https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe/posts/938382126171931:0
No one is upset. We’re actually sad for you and people like you because your lack of knowledge and education just shows in your comments and you’re still to naive to understand the truth of it all!
First of all its not even set to happen until 2020 so that isn’t going to help you now silly!
And by 2020 many companies will have just left the US for other countries.
So you laugh and celebrate now but in 2020 everyone else will be laughing and talking about how people like you live in a fantasy land.
Its just sad and depressing that you and many like you are our countries future and unbelievable how naive you all really are!!!
But good luck to you!!
Maybe Charlie can give you a $15 an hour job in his chocolate factory!
I’ll stick to my factual posts!
Jim I think part of the problem is lots of good jobs don’t exist in the us anymore. The unemployment rate among people with degrees is still pretty high, and the rate of people working jobs they are highly over qualified for high as well. So the people working minimum wage jobs aren’t all kids fresh out of high school it’s in some cases educated adults. Times are tough…. I do agree with you that everything will go up.
Carlos I totally agree with you. But a better fix to that is for the government to make overhead costs and taxes more affordable so large US companies will stay here and small family owned businesses can sustain life.
To many companies have left, downsized or gone out of business because the government has made it impossible for them to afford these costs.
So in turn they decide to raise the wage which will only further push these companies out or force them to downsize.
This will only end bad for these employees unless they are willing to relocate to other countries.
Stephen just give up. Your sad comics are only that, comical!
Believe you me, we are all laughing too. The difference is that it is at you!!!
Prices of everything to soar astronomically by 2020.
Lol lazy gets lazier lol
I guess the kids will have no options for employment anymore. It’s going to be 35 year olds serving your mcmuffin now.
That McMuffin will now cost $10+
It’s probably going to be awkward for 13 year olds at hot topic when their dad is ringing them up
I wonder how many businesses are going to move from the Castaic Industrial Center to Valencia… Or how many layoffs there will be…
What a bunch of morons. Look who is on the panel a bunch of old people that don’t even care anymore. Yippee people will get a raise and everything else will just double and you won’t be able to afford anything just like today. Enjoy
Wow, are you going to raise the wages for those who are currently making $15.00 or more (When it took them years , hard work to make that much or more.. ) they deserved a raise … Where’s the equal opportunity .Ay Ay Ay
The healthy outlook is that there will be fewer fast food restaurants in these cities!
Ashley Acevedo Bryan Acevedo.
I worked breaking eggs that were canned,for 1.25 hr.in 1962. But gas was 45 cents and our rent in a 2bdrm apt. Was 104.00 a mo. In burbank.so every thing is relative. So moral to the story, when min.wage goes up, so does everything else. By 2020, they won’t be able to live on 15$s an hr. And rents will be 2200, for 2 bdrm.?
So that is why you need to improve your skills and not rely on what you know now. That way your value will bring you an increased income.
If Denmark was the size of the United States, that would not be possible. They also pay 60% of their income to taxes. If we had a tax rate here that would take $30,000 a year in taxes from a $50,000 a year household people would just stop working.
Donkey
I prefer happy educated people to dumb a…
Minimum wage was NEVER intended to be a living wage
And what do you do for this “chains of slavery” company Stephen?
And now everything else will raise with it. Why don’t people get it. They will be right back where they started and we will be that much poorer having to pay inflated prices on everything because business owners are forced to hike wages.
MrLil MrsLil Velasquez
Laura Oswald Dangelo Ryan Dangelo
If this happens IN Santa Clarita (or CA for that matter), I’d have to close my business. No if, and, or buts!
Santa Clarita will never pay a living wage ;-)
We are a town of commuters lol
Now everything else will be more expensive and you will still struggle. Raising minimum wage is not going to make anyone better off, it’s just going to raise the cost of living!
^DING DING DING DING!
I speak the truth :) lol
Oh no. Not good
$6 in 5 years isn’t that bad… But I’m sure it’s going to have a rippling effect that causes more issues for business owners and the consumers.
I have mixed feelings about this. People who graduate college are lucky if they can find a job at $15/hour & now people with no skill set or who have done nothing to better their skill set and choose to flip hamburgers for a living get $15/hour?
I have mixed feelings about this. People who graduate college are lucky if they can find a job at $15/hour & now people with no skill set or who have done nothing to better their skill set and choose to flip hamburgers for a living get $15/hour?
So easy to vote this way when the money isn’t coming out of THEIR pockets! How many more businesses will have to lay off employees or close because of this?
So easy to vote this way when the money isn’t coming out of THEIR pockets! How many more businesses will have to lay off employees or close because of this?
The City of Santa Clarita needs to pass legislation that they will not follow suit and raise the minimum wage. This will let businesses feel confident they can relocate here in business friendly Santa Clarita. If market forces require companies to raise their wages then they will adjust.
Study after study disproves the statement offered by the Chamber that businesses will go out of business. Certainly having 5 years (6 for non-profits) time frame to ease into this increase iis reasonable. People need to realize that wages have been stagnet since the 70’s.
Steven, I wonder how many jobs you have had in the past 5 years or where you are working that you have not received a pay increase in 5 years? Seems a little fishy to me that a person would invest time and energy being a great employee for 5 years and never receive a pay increase. The challenge I see with today’s society is the term “earn a living” has been replaced with”give me more money”. I think it is unfortunate that business owners are required to foot the bill for every program, tax increase and entitlement that comes down the line.
It is no wonder that so many employeers are leaving California for other States. What we need here are more jobs that create opportunities for advancement not a higher starting wage. Employees will not start skipping over the less skilled, senior and disabled worker to hire the more skilled at this higher wage.
*Minimum wage was NEVER intended to be a living wage – News Flash, $15.00 an hour is not a living wage.
*But don’t expect the world to buy a $15 burger because you don’t want to find a marketable skill or an education! – Do burgers cost the equivalent of an hour of Min. wage now? What will change?
*And now your job and many others are going to become obsolete because they will hire machines to do your job! – If I made $3 an hour and could be replaced by a machine it would happen anyway.
If you’re implying that I am uneducated because I did not use the term inflation and instead used the common phrase “cost of living” you are sadly mistaken. Perhaps go to college, earn a degree, and get a job where you are not making minimum wage and struggling. But great job knowing the term inflation :) prices will rise significantly when minimum wage rises and you will be back in the same boat you are now.
And rent is past 2200 for a 2bd…. Years ago. Education works
Don’t focus on rent focus on buying. Even if it’s smaller than an apartment it is yours and then you upgrade when you can.