A third city in Los Angeles County has increased minimum wages to $25 per hour for certain private healthcare workers, stirring controversy about the impact on healthcare workers at public hospitals.
On Monday, the city council of Monterey Park, about seven miles from downtown Los Angeles, voted in favor of a $25 minimum wage for healthcare workers in the city, just two weeks after the city of Downey did the same. The wave of wage increases follows the lead of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti who signed an ordinance on July 8 establishing a $25 minimum hourly wage for workers at eligible privately owned healthcare facilities.
Though the wage increase is a win for some, questions remain about where the money will come from.
“They’re gonna have to cut costs and services,” said Erin J. McLaughlin, attorney and shareholder for Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney’s healthcare practice, specializing in labor and employment. “And I think it’s going to really put an additional strain on what is an already strained industry so then the question becomes, ‘can a patient receive adequate care based on where they’re located?’”
The coalition, “No on the Los Angeles Equal Pay Measure,” is a group of hospitals and healthcare workers opposing the wage increase. The group estimates that the ordinance excludes 90% of healthcare workers. According to McLaughlin, this disparity will lead to an even greater workforce shortage.
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