Coalition Sues State to Raise Minimum Pay

A coalition of low-wage workers and public interest organizations sued the state Industrial Welfare Commission Thursday, contending that the agency should raise the minimum wage, which has been fixed at $3.35 an hour for the last five years.

The suit contends that the purchasing power of minimum-wage earners has steadily declined as the commission has resisted efforts to raise the rate.

The rate would have to be raised to $5.38 an hour in order to restore the purchasing power the minimum wage had in 1967 when it was $1.65 an hour, according to Kathryn Grannis of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, lead attorney on the suit. The state uses 1967 as the base year for calculating the adequacy of the minimum wage.

“A single parent supporting one child receives more money from welfare than from working full-time at the minimum wage,” Grannis said. “This situation is not good for the minimum-wage earner or for the state as a whole.”

The suit, which was filed in the state Supreme Court in an attempt to get swift action, is the first time that minimum-wage workers have challenged the adequacy of California’s minimum wag1696622958said about 635,000 Californians earn the minimum wage.

Grannis said that about 70% of minimum-wage earners are adults over the age of 20 and that 52.4% of minimum-wage earners have dependents living with them. The lawyer added that 63% of minimum-wage workers are women.

Hearings Scheduled in Fall

Carla Yates, executive officer of the commission, said Thursday that the agency would have no immediate comment on the suit because it had just received it. Commission Chairwoman Lynnel Pollock could not be reached for comment. Yates said the commission has scheduled its next round of hearings on the minimum-wage issue for August and October.

The suit asserts that the four individual plaintiffs are “minimum-wage workers who cannot afford to pay for their own and their families’ subsistence needs on their meager incomes.”

Supports Five People

One of the plaintiffs, Donald Brown, 21, said he is working 52 to 55 hours a week at two fast-food outlets near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in an attempt to support himself and his extended family, which includes his mother, sister, nephew and Brown’s girlfriend. At a press conference at the Western Center on Law and Poverty, Brown said he earns the minimum wage for 37 to 40 hours a week working at a Taco Bell.

“If they need meat, I cook it. If they need cheese, I shred it. If they need tomatoes, I dice ‘em,” Brown said, describing his job.

He said he receives $3.65 an hour for an additional 15 hours work weekly as a host at a Del Taco restaurant. He said his gross pay for the two jobs runs from $774.36 to $817.91 per month. He said his mother earns $100 a week working as a baby sitter for a family in Beverly Hills.

Brown said that until recently he rode a bicycle to the two jobs but that he is now walking because the bike is broken.

“People working for minimum wage go through the hardest of times,” Brown said. In a declaration filed under penalty of perjury, he said no one in his family has medical insurance and that they have not had gas, heat or hot water for several months. “We’ve been using a hot plate to cook on,” he said. “I guess I shouldn’t knock the minimum wage because I get it, but it’s not enough.”

California law requires the Industrial Welfare Commission to review the minimum wage at least once every two years and ensure that it is set at a level adequate to supply the necessities of life and maintain the health and welfare of employees.

In June, 1982, the suit noted, the commission’s staff informed the five members that by January of that year it would have been necessary to raise the minimum wage to $4.79 an hour for the wage to have the same purchasing power it did in the base period of 1967. Two years later, the staff told the commission that the rate would have to be raised to $5.01 an hour for the minimum wage to regain its 1967 purchasing power.

After public hearings, the commission in both years determined that the minimum wage “may be inadequate to supply the necessary cost of proper living,” the suit noted. Under state law, if the commission makes such a finding, it has to convene a Wage Board to further consider the issue. The board is made up of 15 employee representatives and 15 employer representatives.

Board Stalemated

The Wage Board, however, stalemated on the issue of whether the minimum wage should be raised and made no recommendation to the commission on increasing the rate.

In both instances, the commission, by 3-2 votes, declined to raise the rate. Commission members did not give a specific reason for their action at the April, 1985, meeting at which they last declined to raise the rate, according to minutes of the meeting.

Commissioners were appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian and include two representatives of employers, two representatives of employees and one public member. In both instances, the public member sided with the employer representatives in opposing a wage increase.

The state minimum wage is the same as the federal minimum wage, which also has not been raised since Jan. 1, 1981. Under federal law covering most industries, the state’s minimum wage cannot be lower than the federal standard.

The plaintiffs in the case include Californians for a Fair Share, Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations, Coalition for Economic Survival, the Equal Rights Congress, Homeless Organizing Team, Household Workers Rights, United Farm Workers of America, and the Women’s Economic Agenda Project.