Court Upholds L.A. Living Wage Law

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/01/08/court-upholds-la-living-wage-law/

by Mike Hall, Jan 8, 2008

A California appeals court last month upheld a Los Angeles living wage law that requires a dozen major hotels near Los Angeles International Airport to pay some 3,500 workers wage and benefits that equal at least $10.64 an hour.

The 3–0 ruling by a panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeals overturned an earlier one by a county court that blocked implementation of the wage floor. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, UNITE HERE and community groups successfully mobilized support for the wage law that won City Council approval in 2006 and was signed into law.

Hotel and other business owners strongly opposed the new law and the City Council rewrote parts of it in an attempt to address the business community’s concerns, but business interests sued to block the rewritten new wage law.

James Elmendorf, the policy director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, told the Los Angeles Times:

We spent a lot of time negotiating with trying to reach an accommodation. We assume there is very little anyone can do to convince hotels that paying workers fairly is the right thing to do, so we have to keep the pressure on.

In a statement, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised the decision.

I have always supported the alternative ordinance, which the court upheld today, because it balances the right of workers to receive a living wage with the concerns and needs of business.