Home » Santa Clarita News » Business » L.A. County Adopts $15 Minimum Wage Hike, Santa Clarita Not Considering
L.A. County Adopts $15 Minimum Wage Hike, Santa Clarita Not Considering

L.A. County Adopts $15 Minimum Wage Hike, Santa Clarita Not Considering

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to approve the minimum wage hike from $9 hourly to $15 hourly by 2020.


Sponsored Articles


Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking Santa Clarita news alerts delivered right to your inbox.

In the Santa Clarita Valley, this motion will effect Stevenson Ranch, Castaic, Val Verde, Westridge and other unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County in the Santa Clarita Valley.  The city of Santa Clarita does not have to comply with the motion.

The city of Santa Clarita City Council is not currently considering a minimum wage increase, said city of Santa Clarita Spokeswoman Gail Morgan.

The minimum wage hike will increase yearly for all nonprofits and businesses with 26 or more employees beginning July 1, 2016 to $10.50, July 1, 2017 to $12.00, July 1, 2018 to $13.25, July 1, 2019 to $14.25 and July 1, 2020 to $15.00, according to the agenda.

The minimum wage for companies and nonprofits with fewer than 26 employees will have a little bit longer than the larger companies to prepare for the wage hike, according to the agenda. Beginning July 1, 2017 the minimum wage will be raised to $10.50 hourly, July 1, 2018  to $12.00, July 1, 2019 to $13.25, July 1, 2020 to $14.00  and July 1, 2021 to $15.00.

“Regardless of definition, many L.A. County residents who work full-time earn wages that do not cover the basic costs of living, which should provide for safe housing, healthy food, clothing and basic medical care,” according to the motion by Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis, in a previous story. “The current minimum wage in Los Angeles County is $9.00 an hour, set by state law, which equates to $18,000 a year for a full-time employee.”

On July 1, 2022, the minimum wage will be increased annually and will be based on the average Consumer Price Index over the previous 20 years, according to the agenda. The County’s Chief Executive Office officials will determine the rate annually on January 1.

According to the county’s findings, zero percent of the employers surveyed said they planned to close their business due to raising the minimum wage, six percent of employers thought it was even somewhat likely they would reduce the number of minimum-wage employees and 71 percent of the employers thought it would be unlikely they would reduce the work hours of their minimum wage employees.

$15 Minimum Wage Hike

Supervisor Michael Antonovich voiced opposition for the minimum wage increase.

“Minimum wage is an entry-level. Most of us, I know, started with a minimum wage job when we were in high school and college,” Antonovich said. “Six Flags (Magic Mountain) is one of the major employers of youth in the county of Los Angeles. many of our foster children are hired by Six Flags. You’re going to have a loss of revenue when they annex to the city of Santa Clarita.”

More than 100 speakers were listed to voice their opinions on the agenda items proposing a minimum wage increase. Minimum Wage Hike Los Angeles County

While many speakers supported the minimum wage increase, several speakers at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting said the minimum wage increase would force them to lay off employees and some even said they would have to close their business’ doors.

“We have businesses in the city of Santa Clarita that have some of their facilities in the unincorporated (part of) town and some of their facilities in the city. It creates a lot of complication for them of how they are going to administer and implement this wage increase, creating this great disparity,” said Holly Schroeder, president and CEO of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation.

Schroeder added that wages could become complicated if an employee is working on the north side of the I-5, which is in the city of Santa Clarita, and then goes and works on the south side of the I-5, which is in the unincorporated part of Los Angeles County. “There are a tremendous number of details that need to be worked out, a lot of questions. We look forward to working with you and please give this a lot of thought.”

Terri Crain, president and CEO of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce spoke about how the minimum wage increase would affect the towns of Castaic and Val Verde.

“The town of Castaic is a mecca for small business, mom and pop shops. They’ve lost two large supermarkets and an abundance of fast food restaurants which is a loss of jobs,” Crain said. “This is before this initiative takes place. The burden of these higher wages is going to fall on mom and pops who are already overtaxed physically and emotionally and overburdened financially.

“Also within the town of Val Verde, Val Verde is served by Sam Dixon Health Care. They will have to close their facility in this town of Val Verde, which is an impoverished community within L.A. County in the fifth district. I urge you to take into consideration the small outlying communities within LA County as well as the agricultural communities in north LA County, Palmdale, Lancaster area. This impacts more than just small pockets within the bigger picture.”

One business owner said he will have to close his Castaic location with a minimum wage increase.

“Most of my employees are high school students,” the business owner said. “They are part-time employees and high school students. I do have a place in Castaic and that would be the first place I close. It is barely holding on. How can you impose something so drastic to us.”

Kevin Korenthal, of the Forged By Fire nonprofit in Santa Clarita said “minimum wage increase will negatively impact the ability of disabled people and veterans to get jobs.”

AMS Fulfillment CEO and Managing Partner Ken Wiseman also appeared before the Board of Supervisors, describing how of his eight operations in the Santa Clarita Valley, six of them are going to be impacted by this decision and two are not.

“What you’re doing is gonna make me change how I manage my business. I’m looking to move operations outside of the area impacted by your decision,” Wiseman said. “I’m actively trying to help with the annexation of the Commerce Center into Santa Clarita because Santa Clarita, to the best of my understanding, isn’t going to fall suit. They’re going to benefit from all the businesses that are going to want to relocate on the east side of the I-5.”

In California, the cities of San Jose, San Diego, Berkeley, Richmond, Oakland and San Francisco have raised wages over the past year, according to the agenda.

The report of the findings from the research to raise the county’s minimum wage can be found here.

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

KHTS AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio

L.A. County Adopts $15 Minimum Wage Hike, Santa Clarita Not Considering

7 comments

  1. When you vote for a socialist, this is what you sew, lost jobs, layoffs, businesses closing. Haven’t these politicians learned anything from the example of Greece and Puerto Rico?

  2. Has the Board of Supervisors done a study (they do on everything else) that will determine the additional inflation to prices the increased wage expense will cause? If wages are increased prices will increase even for the people the politicians are supposedly trying to help (or buy votes from). People on fixed incomes will be affected the most as their buying power diminishes.
    The County Board of Supervisors should wait to see how many people that are laid off from the City of Los Angeles because of the forced (LIKE COMMUNISTS) wage increase there. The County would likely have increase in employment and thus County revenue. Prices in the County would remain the same and be more attractive than shopping in the City.
    It’s all so simple and makes so much sense! I can’t be the only one that sees this….

  3. So, here’s the thing. That picture makes it look like a big supportive crowd. I happened to be driving by the front of the administration building this morning. The media had everyone bunched together to make it look like much more support than there was.
    The wage hike is unfortunate, because the cost of everything will go up and then everyones wages will follow. In essence, accomplishing nothing. Someone should take an economics class.

  4. First people need to read the story. The increase is happening over 5 years. Any good business person can budget out and make adjustments to handle the increases as they come year to year. No matter what we do price increases for goods are coming; from increased gas prices, to increased insurance costs, inflation and just the cost of doing business year to year prices on goods and services are going up with or without this pay increase. If people make more money they have more buying power to put back into the economy. Most of the communist comments or people talking about shuttering their businesses are having a knee jerk reaction and need to sit down and look at the numbers. If they have to close their doors because of this increase then they may need to reconsider being a business owner. The true killer of business in the state/county is taxes and that needs to be addressed. Address the tax issues and this increase wont be as big a hit.

    • A government imposed mandate for a business to spend money that they normally would not have spent is in essence a tax. Address the tax AND regulation issues. Capitalism works best when it does not have government interference.

  5. Once again Santa Clarita is gonna be on the wrong side of history.

    • Yeah that’s right–Santa Clarita will not fall into the great Immune California leftist social abyss of bankrupt cities abandoned by business and working people who own their own business. Santa Clarita is a lovely middle class town which to date provides great upward mobility but take that away and we turn into the rest of California which comprises no middle class–only the Democrat elite and the starvation of the welfare class poor

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Jessica Boyer

Jessica is an award-winning journalist, photographer, videographer and artist. She has worked with news organizations including NBC Los Angeles, KHTS AM 1220, and the Pierce College Roundup News. She is studying to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism with an emphasis on Photojournalism and a minor in Communications at California State University, Northridge. She has studied and worked in many fields including filmmaking, journalism, studio photography, and some graphic design. She began her journalism journey at the Arroyo Seco Conquestador News Network and the Saugus High School News Network.