LOS ANGELES—A recently approved ordinance raising the minimum wage of some health care workers in the city to $25 per hour was temporarily suspended from taking effect Aug. 11 by the city clerk’s office after a referendum petition challenging the ordinance was filed.
Mayor Eric Garcetti signed the ordinance into law in July after it was adopted by the city council.
The ordinance will be suspended while the city clerk’s office determines if the petition, filed on Aug 10, contains a sufficient number of valid signatures—at least 40,717. If sufficient, the issue would go before voters in 2024.
The ordinance applies only to privately owned facilities, including hospitals, clinics, skilled nursing facilities, or residential care facilities. It applies to workers including clinicians, nursing assistants, aides, technicians, maintenance workers, janitors, housekeepers, clerical workers, and administrative workers.
The “No on the Los Angeles Unequal Pay Measure” group contends the municipal ordinance excludes workers at more than 90 percent of health care facilities in the city, calling the measure “inequitable and discriminatory.” The group is looking to force a referendum that would put the issue before voters.
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