California hospitals have launched a campaign to roll back Los Angeles’ newly enacted $25 per hour minimum wage for many private sector healthcare workers.
The Healthcare Workers Minimum Wage Ordinance was signed Friday by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti after the city received a petition for the pay increase organized by the labor group SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) and signed by more than 145,000 people. Los Angeles’ current minimum wage is $16.04.
The pay bump is set to take effect 31 days after being published by the city clerk, will be adjusted annually for cost of living starting in 2024 and will raise wages for roughly 20,000 healthcare workers across the city, according to the mayor’s office. Those impacted include non-clinical staff, such as food service workers, groundskeepers and maintenance workers, according to the ordinance.
"Working long, grueling hours and absorbing insurmountable stress, the burnout being felt from the pressures of COVID-19 has been prevalent, causing an alarming number of healthcare workers to leave the profession altogether,” Los Angeles Councilmember Curren Price said in a statement. “The approval to raise their wages demonstrates to the countless workers that they are valued, seen, heard and above all, their lives matter."
The ordinance was opposed by hospitals under the banner of the No on the Unequal Pay Measure Coalition, a campaign sponsored by the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.
The group...
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