Council Overrides Veto, OKs Wage Law

Capping a year of tumultuous debate, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted to override Mayor Richard Riordan’s veto of an ordinance establishing an unprecedented “living wage” and benefits package for employees of city contractors.

The council’s 11-1 vote means that the so-called living wage measure will become city law by early May.

“This is . . . a very important moment,” the measure’s principal sponsor, Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, told a crowd of cheering supporters after the council’s vote. “It is not where we want to be, but it is certainly not where we were.”

Goldberg’s remarks acknowledged that the ordinance, although bitterly opposed by Riordan, will ensure that only about 5,000 workers--less than 0.5% of the work force--will receive a “livable wage,” defined in the measure as at least $7.25 an hour with benefits, such as health insurance, or $8.50 an hour without such benefits.

Goldberg and a group of labor organizers and community activists under the banner of the Living Wage Coalition heralded the council’s vote as a landmark step for Los Angeles, which joins New York, Baltimore and other cities in setting minimum standards for compensation of those who work for municipal contractors.

“This has been a really incredible effort,” said coalition leader Madeline Janis-Aparicio. “It shows what we can do.”

Goldberg added: “It’s historic because it says that as employers, we won’t keep people [who perform city services] living in poverty.”

In contrast to previous public hearings, where supporters and opponents of the measure clashed over its implications, Tuesday’s final vote proceeded with virtually no comment. Perhaps sensing the measure’s eventual passage, no one spoke in favor of the mayor’s veto. And, by agreement, organizers of the measure elected to have Leonard Beerman, the retired senior rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple in West Los Angeles, serve as their spokesman.

“This vote is one that will affect significantly the lives of some 5,000 workers in this community,” Beerman said.

He portrayed the minimum thresholds set by the ordinance as crucial to the workers’ human dignity, as well as their economic survival.

“What it demonstrates most clearly and passionately is that by your vote you have made it profoundly clear that the moral conscience has a place of honor in this city,” he said.

Under the ordinance, which goes beyond that of other municipalities, employers who receive city contracts of more than $25,000 will be required to pay their workers e livable wage. The law will also apply to companies that receive city financial aid amounting to at least $100,000 a year or $1 million or more in one-time assistance from the city. In addition to health insurance, employers who elect to pay benefits rather than a higher minimum wage will also be required to provide workers with 12 paid days off a year.

An analysis by the city’s top financial and policy advisors concluded that the measure would cost up to $21 million when it was fully implemented, but that much of that amount would be borne by contractors and consumers. At most, city officials estimated, the measure would eliminate about 200 jobs.