April 12, 2023 -- The City Council directed staff shortly after midnight Tuesday to draft a minimum wage ordinance for health care workers that one Council member acknowledged could be "irrelevant."

The proposed law would set a minimum wage of at least $25 an hour for "frontline care givers" at Santa Monica hospitals, clinics, and psychiatric facilities, and for those who provide home care services ("Santa Monica Could Set Minimum Wage for Healthcare Workers,"

The Council members voted by acclimation to direct City staff -- which they have noted is overburdened with work -- to research and draft the ordinance, which largely mirrors a Senate bill working its way through the legislature.

"There is actually a State law that is currently pending that would do this in any event," said Mayor Gleam Davis, one of three Councilmembers who placed the item on the agenda. "This is only direction to staff."

"What we do may become irrelevant because the State may supersede us anyway," said Councilmember Phil Brock, who co-sponsored the item along with Councilmmber Jesse Zwick .

The measure is meant to address a growing shortage of health care workers and acknowledge their worth to the community, the item's sponsors said.

"They are fantastic," said Brock, who said he had accompanied firefighters to Saint John's Health Center six times in the past week. "Whatever they get paid is not enough."

Hospitals "don't have the staff members they need, and the staff members they have are...