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# LA’s Minimum Wage Race Could be Disastrous
October 13 2014
Written by Bernard Parks.
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**Park’s Place**-Have you ever heard of [putting the cart before the horse](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+the+cart+before+the+horse "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+the+cart+before+the+horse")?
Sometimes people get so intoxicated on the quest to be the first to do something, they plow through all reason and all the caution signs.
Clearly, if you give unions an inch, they’ll take a green mile.
Less than a week after Councilmembers (on behalf of unions) introduced a motion to [raise the wages of hotel workers](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=14-0223 "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=14-0223") in large hotels to $15.37 an hour, they came back and decided they wanted to sprinkle fairy dust on the rest of LA’s workers.
Tuesday, the same Councilmembers [introduced a proposal](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=14-1371 "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=14-1371") that in addition to raising the citywide minimum wage to $13.25 an hour by 2017, ([which Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-01/los-angeles-mayor-proposes-13-25-an-hour-minimum-wage.html "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-01/los-angeles-mayor-proposes-13-25-an-hour-minimum-wage.html")) they want to include another bump to $15.25 an hour by 2019. Mind you, Mayor Garcetti’s proposal hasn’t even been heard in Council. I’m confused, is the Council trying to pull a fast one over the Mayor?
Eric, you gotta be quick- most of them are fueled by union diesel and will burn rubber all over you.
Earlier that day, Vice President Joe Biden, the Mayor and others met for a [roundtable discussion](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.myfoxla.com/story/26708175/vp-joe-biden-on-2-day-visit-to-los-angeles-for-fundraisers "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.myfoxla.com/story/26708175/vp-joe-biden-on-2-day-visit-to-los-angeles-for-fundraisers") at the LA Baking Company on raising the minimum wage. Shouldn’t they have had their discussion in a restaurant, at a meeting of small business owners, or in a lobby of a hotel with 300 rooms or more?
The White House is in favor of raising the [federal minimum wage to $10.10](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.whitehouse.gov/raise-the-wage "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.whitehouse.gov/raise-the-wage").
July 1 of this year, California’s minimum wage was increased to $9. January 1, 2016, the minimum wage here [will be increased to $10](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_minimumwage.htm/ "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_minimumwage.htm/"). I’m not quite sure why the city is engaging in this minimum wage [space race](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.history.com/topics/space-race "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.history.com/topics/space-race"), other than to be the first major city in the U.S. to do so, for the fame, for the notoriety. How very Hollywood of us.
I think businesses, particularly the small businesses that are the lifeblood of our city, are not as loud (as the special interests pushing these wage increases) right now because they don’t want to seem callous or cold-hearted for wanting to protect their bottom line.
But the truth is, if businesses have to pay their employees more, they will either freeze hiring efforts, cut the hours of their staff, relocate or close, or pass the cost onto the consumer.
Some area restaurants have even begun adding surcharges to customers’ checks to cover the cost of [providing health insurance](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-restaurant-healthcare-surcharge-20141007-story.html#page=1 "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-restaurant-healthcare-surcharge-20141007-story.html#page=1") to their employees.
Additionally, the [University of Berkeley Labor Center](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/ "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/"), which supports the hotel minimum wage increase, acknowledges that the restaurant industry would lose between 500 and 600 jobs. If you think everything will be the same after such wage increases are enacted, you got another thing coming.
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In response to the Council agreeing to increase the minimum wage for workers at large hotels, the Hotel Association of Los Angeles [issued a report](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://bernardparks.com/files/000-10.9_HotelJobLossImpactLetter.pdf "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://bernardparks.com/files/000-10.9_HotelJobLossImpactLetter.pdf") delineating over 1,400 jobs would be lost at union and non-union hotels in each council district and UCLA’s September 2014 Anderson Forecast has predicted that California’s economy will keep up its [slow crawl through 2016](http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ucla-economic-forecast-20140911-story.html "http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=468&ID=74380&NL=11254&N=91585&SI=3885938&URL=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ucla-economic-forecast-20140911-story.html"). If the prediction is true, that leaves just one year until the Mayor’s $13.25 hike would take effect.
How LA will look in 2017, I can’t say. But I know it’s less than three years away, and if this climate of competing wages, competing cities, and competing profits continues, a recipe for disaster is ahead. I hope the country and Southern California can return to a time of prosperity and I hope unbiased research will charter the path to our recovery and that elected officials will have the sense to listen and not let special interests groups make the decisions for them.
***(Bernard Parks is Los Angeles Councilman for the 8th Council District. He is also a former Los Angeles Police Chief. He can be reached at )***
***-cw***
***CityWatch***
***Vol 12 Issue 83***
***Pub: Oct 14, 2014***
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