Living Wage Issue Put in Voters' Laps

With three sons and her mother to care for, Flora Andrade finds that her wages as a Santa Monica hotel housekeeper run out long before her family's needs do.

"I can't pay for my rent, my bills, my food," she said. "It's just too little."

That is why the Guatemala-born Andrade, 41, is risking the ire of her employer, the Doubletree Guest Suites, to speak out for Measure JJ, a referendum on Tuesday's ballot that would enact a "living wage" for thousands of workers in the city's coastal and downtown tourism zone.

Since Baltimore passed the nation's first "living wage" law in 1994, more than 90 cities or counties, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, have adopted laws boosting the pay of the working poor. Until now, the ordinances have covered companies that have contracts with or get direct economic aid from cities.

Santa Monica's ordinance goes a step beyond. It would be the first to establish a wage floor for private employers of hotel maids, food servers and retail clerks, on the grounds that the businesses benefit from public investments.

As a result, it is being closely watched nationwide by labor activists who view a victory as a way to propel their movement -- and by business owners who say such measures could distort wages and erode profit margins.

"This ordinance definitely pushes the envelope," said Madeline Janis-Aparicio, executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, a coalition that helped enact Los Angeles' living wage in 1996.

The Santa Monica ordinance would require employers in the tony coastal zone and downtown to pay $10.50 an hour with health-care benefits, or $12.25 an hour without. The rates would be adjusted annually for inflation. Businesses with more than $5 million in gross annual sales for each of the last two years would qualify. The sales figure also would be adjusted each year.

The City Council passed the ordinance last year. But before it went into effect, a hotel coalition succeeded in putting the issue before the voters.

Taking Sides

For weeks, Santa Monica's nearly 56,000 registered voters have been deluged with campaign mailers, phone calls and precinct walkers urging them to vote for or against. Both sides are accusing the other of misleading arguments and dirty tricks.

The high-stakes squabble is rooted in the city's decision two decades ago to encourage the development of tourism rather than big office buildings.