Several Southern California cities have approved, or are considering, a $25-an-hour minimum wage for healthcare workers at private facilities, but a new report says 65% of healthcare employees across those communities would be excluded.
The study from Berkeley Research Group predicts the move would fuel higher salaries for others earning more than minimum wage as well, increasing healthcare costs by hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
The Berkeley analysis was spurred by a series of ballot initiatives filed recently by SEIU-UHW across 10 Southland communities. The pay hikes target private sector healthcare employees who work in hospitals, integrated health systems and dialysis clinics.
The report was commissioned by the California Hospitals Committee on Issues, an initiative committee that takes positions on ballot initiatives of interest to the hospital community.
Since the wage-increase measures were initiated by a petition drive, the cities can either adopt them as an ordinance or put them before voters in November.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti approved the ordinance for L.A. on July 8, but it was quickly challenged by “No on the Los Angeles Unequal Pay Measure.” The coalition of healthcare workers, community clinics and hospitals say the wage increase is unfair because it fails to include employees at public healthcare facilities.
Backed by funding from Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and its hospitals, Dignity Health and the California Association of Hospitals...
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