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South L.A. Responds To Garcetti's Minimum Wage Proposal

David Hodari |
September 3, 2014 | 11:48 p.m. PDT

Contributor

As audience members sweltered in Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Monday, Mayor Eric Garcetti looked alert and energetic while he announced his push to increase the minimum wage from $9 an hour to $13.25 by 2017.

According to the Employment Development Department, the average working wage for Angelenos from District 8 in 2012, at $31,360, was lower than for any other L.A. County district. District 8 covers much of South L.A., including the neighborhoods of West Adams, Baldwin Hills, and Crenshaw.  

“You're talking about placing more dollars in the pockets of people who will spend those dollars,” said Rusty Hicks, the Political Director of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, when discussing District 8 workers. He continued, “if you're part of the ‘one percent’ you can only buy so many haircuts.” 

Rusty Hicks of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor (David Hodari/Neon Tommy)
Rusty Hicks of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor (David Hodari/Neon Tommy)

Hicks' sentiments were echoed by another union, Unite Here! Local 11, which represents more than 20,000 Los Angeles workers. 

“I think it’s clear that raising the minimum wage will have a dramatic effect on the local economy,” said spokeswoman Leigh Shelton.

2013’s Los Angeles City Council Districts Economic Report backs up the concerns voiced by organized labor. As the most recent figures on the state of District 8's economy, the report says that the average annual wage decreased by 5.4 percent between 2011 and 2012.

“In general, living is so expensive,” said Rosa María Melana, who manages Rosy’s Beauty Salon on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. “In the salon, it’s not a minimum wage, it’s a personal percent - how many clients they [the two employees] have,” she said.

Melena explained that more money in the pockets of her neighbors meant more customers.

Rosy's Beauty Salon on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (David Hodari/Neon Tommy)
Rosy's Beauty Salon on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (David Hodari/Neon Tommy)

However, not everybody’s reaction to the Mayor’s announcement has been as positive as Melena’s.

“The concern that I have,” said District 8's Council Member Bernard Parks, “is that the business community felt left out of the discussion.” Parks has yet to take an official stance on Garcetti’s push for wage reform.

“You’re going to cause businesses to lay off people… or they won’t hire people,” Parks continued, pointing to the district’s 25 percent unemployment rate as one of the highest in the city. 

The Council Member’s concern on behalf of business did little to dispel Rusty Hick’s assertion that Parks “doesn't represent his constituents and, unfortunately, hasn't for a long time.”

The L.A. City Council’s annual report, however, confirms Park’s fears of a continuing lack of employment opportunities in District 8. While District 7, which covers much of the northeastern San Fernando Valley, had the second lowest job figures in 2012, with 47,345 workers, District 8 was by far the lowest in L.A. County, with 15,421 jobs.

Mayor Garcetti's plans are aimed at creating more disposable income in areas such as District 8. (David Hodari/Neon Tommy)
Mayor Garcetti's plans are aimed at creating more disposable income in areas such as District 8. (David Hodari/Neon Tommy)

Of those District 8 jobs, 967 are in the hotel and hospitality industry. Leigh Shelton said that Unite Here! Local 11’s Raise L.A. programme - which is aimed at raising the wages of hotel workers - complements Garcetti’s #RaiseTheWageLA initiative. As the biggest low-wage industry in the city, she said, the sector needs to be prioritized. 

Again, Parks’ views differed from those of organized labor. He described such sector specific schemes as “very poorly thought out.”

One way in which companies may seek to counteract the losses which Bernard Parks alleges, is by hiring more part-time workers. Daigoro Gutierez, 28, shares Parks’ lack of enthusiasm for Garcetti’s cause.

A hospitality worker at USC, which sits on the border of District 8, Gutierez said that “if they hire you part-time you don’t get the full benefits… it’s just another way of decreasing the amount of money they’re pushing into.”

While USC lies over the border in District Nine, a large proportion of their employees commute from District 8, said Leigh Shelton. As “the largest private employer in Los Angeles,” USC provides over 26,000 jobs to the L.A. County area as of 2007.

Shelton said that in light of the campaign to raise the minimum wage, USC may start hiring more part-time workers to make the kind of cost savings which Gutierez describes. The USC press office declined to comment on Garcetti’s announcement. 

Rabbi Susan Goldberg introduced Mayor Garcetti on Monday, saying that “it’s one thing to give out food, it’s another to do the righteous work of changing the way things are in this city, so that every human being who works has the dignity of a living wage.”

Whether Garcetti’s plans will bring either change or dignity to the low-wage workers and the unemployed citizens of District 8 remains to be seen.

You can reach contributor David Hodari here and follow him on Twitter here



 

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