L.A. Business Leaders Balk at Idea of Minimum Wage Hike

Los Angeles business leaders today said they were troubled by a proposal being shopped by Mayor Eric Garcetti that would raise the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $13.50 an hour by 2017.

Garcetti has been shopping a plan to area business groups that would raise the minimum wage from the current $9 an hour by $1.50 annually for the next three years, after which the wage would be tied to the cost of living.

The plan would be a “death blow for some businesses,” according to Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association.

“This is incredible that the mayor would even consider this in this economy,” Waldman said. “We are losing businesses, which are moving out of the city in droves. This will only further activate the flight of businesses and jobs (from) Los Angeles.”

Members of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce were also “unenthusiastic” when they were briefed about the proposal, chamber President Gary Toebben said.

The recently instituted statewide hike that raised the minimum wage to $9 and will increase it to $10 by 2016 “will have less of an impact” than a hike for an individual city, Toebben said.

A city wage increase “doesn’t impact the other 6 million people in the counties, city and other regions around us,” he said.

The mayor’s office would not confirm the specifics of the proposal, but mayoral aide Jeff Millman said officials have been meeting with business leaders, as well as “labor, community and faith leaders” to talk about “ways to help L.A. families and our economy thrive.”

One of the mayor’s goals is to “lift Angelenos out of poverty,” he said.

Connie Llanos, an aide for Councilman Curren Price, who has suggested that a citywide minimum wage hike be instituted, said “we’re excited” to have a “conversation” about poverty in Los Angeles.

“We’re ready for it,” she said.

The council has been working on a plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour at large hotels.

The plan also drew support from Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary- treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, which is pushing for the $15 minimum wage for hotel workers.

“I’m very glad to hear the mayor would be interested in increasing the minimum wage,” she said. “We’ve been working on increasing wages. We know that there has been a tremendous growth of poverty wage jobs.”

A group of activists is also hoping to get an initiative on the ballot to raise the minimum wage to $15 for all workers in the city.

--City News Service

PHOTO Patch file photo.