Minimum Wage

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Even as the City Council unanimously rescinded a law Wednesday extending the so-called living wage ordinance to workers at Los Angeles International Airport-area hotels, council members ordered new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.

The House overwhelmingly approved business tax breaks worth $1.8 billion over 10 years, a key step toward forging a congressional compromise on increasing the minimum wage. Passage of a wage increase for the lowest-paid workers now depends on how quickly the House and Senate work out differences between their tax packages. The Senate tax breaks are worth $8.3 billion. The increase would raise hourly pay from $5.15 to $7.25 over two years.

The Los Angeles City Council gave final approval Wednesday to an ordinance that will for the first time extend the city's "living wage" requirement of $10.64 an hour to workers at a dozen hotels on the Century Boulevard corridor near LAX -- the first time the protection has been applied to businesses that do not contract directly with the city. The ordinance was approved without debate on a 10-3 vote with council members Bernard C. Parks, Greig Smith and Dennis Zine in opposition.

A Superior Court judge Wednesday temporarily blocked a new law extending the city's "living wage" to workers at LAX-area hotels from taking effect until May at the earliest. The ruling, by Judge Dzintra Janavs, came in response to a challenge to the law filed Wednesday by seven of the dozen hotels that would be required to pay all workers a living wage -- $10.64 per hour including health benefits -- under the new law.

A Superior Court judge heard arguments Wednesday in a challenge to an ordinance that would extend the protections of the city's "living wage" law to workers at a dozen hotels near Los Angeles International Airport. Judge David P. Yaffe didn't indicate when he would issue a ruling. The ordinance was passed in February but had been blocked temporarily on grounds that it was too similar to an earlier law rescinded by the City Council under threat of a voter referendum.