Minimum Wage

An aggressive push to organize thousands of immigrant carwash workers in Southern California has sparked a fierce battle pitting big labor against two brothers who are major players in the Los Angeles carwash industry. The labor movement has emptied its arsenal against Benny and Nisan Pirian, entrepreneurs whose family operates five carwashes in Los Angeles County. The Pirians settled a federal labor complaint last month but still face criminal charges, a class-action suit, a union boycott and recurrent demonstrations.

Re " ... It's a major mistake," Opinion, April 11 State Sen. Tom McClintock's article is an example of the misinformation that permeates the minimum-wage debate. It's time to get the facts straight. The vast majority (83%) of workers earning within a dollar of the state's minimum wage are adults, ages 20 to 64. More than half (56%) are adults who work full time. Among California's families with minimum-wage workers, two in five (38%) rely on the minimum wage for all of their family earnings.

A large share of the state workforce will be exempt from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order to pay government employees the federal minimum wage until a state budget is enacted, but others -- doctors, lawyers and engineers -- will get nothing, according to documents provided by the administration Tuesday. In a letter to California Controller John Chiang, the administration's personnel chief spelled out which workers the governor's office deemed essential to public health and safety.

California's lowest-paid workers are about to get a raise. The state minimum wage jumps today by 75 cents to $7.50 an hour, affecting about 1.4 million people. The increase -- California's first since a 50-cent boost in January 2002 -- will give the state the fourth-highest minimum wage in the nation. An additional 50-cent raise, planned for a year from now, will catapult the state into first place.

The House's Democratic majority, exercising its new political clout, on Wednesday approved the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade -- from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over two years. The measure heads to the Senate, where it is likely to be coupled with tax breaks for small businesses to win Republican votes in the narrowly divided chamber and to secure President Bush's signature.

THE UNITED States appears ready to support a national living wage. Last week, the House of Representatives voted to raise the federal minimum wage in three steps to $7.25 an hour as of mid-2009. The Senate is expected to link the raise to tax breaks for business, but passage seems assured. And President Bush has said that he will sign legislation to increase the wage, which would be the first hike since 1997, when the current $5.15 minimum became law.

Even as the City Council unanimously rescinded a law Wednesday extending the so-called living wage ordinance to workers at Los Angeles International Airport-area hotels, council members ordered new legislation that would leave the door open to further expansions of the ordinance. Both actions were part of a loosely worded two-page agreement negotiated late Tuesday with the mayor, council, labor leaders and two top officials of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

Tax provisions in the landmark minimum wage bill passed by the Senate on Thursday have divided the California business community, pitting the interests of small businesses against large corporations. The tax provisions were added to the legislation by Senate Democrats as a concession to small businesses and Republicans who initially opposed the bill, which would raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade.

After a proposed deal with top business leaders crumbled over the weekend, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a new version of a living wage ordinance for workers at hotels near Los Angeles International Airport. The 9 to 3 vote guarantees wages and benefits of at least $10.64 per hour to workers at 13 hotels along Century Boulevard. Though the law is expected to win final approval next week, it is likely to be challenged in court, union and business officials agreed Tuesday.