L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl backs statewide minimum wage measure

The elected official who led Los Angeles County’s adoption of a $15 minimum wage has endorsed one of two proposed 2016 ballot initiatives that would extend the same base pay rate statewide.

L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl on Thursday threw her support behind the so-called Fair Wage Act, which would gradually raise California’s minimum wage to $15. The campaign to place the measure on the ballot is being led by a branch of the Service Employees International Union, the United Healthcare Workers West.

The endorsement made Kuehl the most prominent political figure from Southern California to support the proposal, which is also being championed by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff. A staunchly pro-labor Democrat who served in the state Senate and Assembly, Kuehl was the driving force behind the county’s July vote to raise the base wage.

In an interview, Kuehl said a statewide minimum wage would be preferable to a patchwork of municipal ordinances, such as one adopted in Los Angeles. “It would save us the trouble, as it were, of going to each one of the 87 other cities in the county and saying, ‘Please, please, let’s do the same thing,’” she said.

Kuehl’s endorsement comes amid heavy political jockeying over the best way to raise base pay in California. Last week, another branch of the SEIU, the SEIU State Council, announced it would attempt to place a rival measure on the ballot that would both boost the minimum wage and double the amount of paid sick leave employers must grant workers.

Kuehl said she had been approached by the backers of the Fair Wage Act before the rival SEIU State Council proposal was announced, and agreed to endorse it after reviewing its draft language. Like the county’s legislation, the act would incrementally increase the minimum wage each year until it reaches $15 in 2020.

“I wanted to be out early in favor of a statewide minimum wage,” she said.

Kuehl said she had not yet been approached by backers of the State Council initiative, but hopes that the two proposals can be joined in a single ballot initiative in 2016 to make the best use of campaign resources.

The county Board of Supervisors, which governs about 1 million people in unincorporated areas, is the second-largest local government in California to adopt a $15 minimum wage. The largest is the city of L.A. Kuehl’s announcement could increase pressure on L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti to take sides in the debate over boosting pay statewide.

Garcetti was a driving force in the city’s minimum wage increase, which was enacted two months before the county’s legislation. He also urged county supervisors to support a wage increase, saying that “the nation is watching what we do here in Los Angeles as a region.”

But the mayor has held back from endorsing either of the union-backed state ballot proposals. He told The Times last month that he was unsure of the wisdom of applying a uniform, statewide $15 minimum wage to different regions of California with varying costs of living.

His office later said that he supports a $15 minimum wage for the entire state, but would not endorse an initiative until it had officially qualified for the 2016 ballot.

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