The Long Beach City Council voted Tuesday to draft an ordinance that would increase healthcare worker wages to $25 an hour rather than send the item to the ballot.
The ordinance, which will come back to the council for approval next Tuesday, Aug. 9, would increase the wages of clinicians, certified nursing assistants, aides, technicians, guards, food service workers, janitors and housekeepers, pharmacists and clerical workers. It would apply to general acute care hospitals, clinics, acute psychiatric hospitals, dialysis clinics and psychiatric health facilities in Long Beach.
Similar minimum wage initiatives have been passed or proposed in Los Angeles, Downey, Inglewood, Lynwood, Duarte, Monterey Park, Baldwin Park and Culver City.
During public comment, healthcare workers from Long Beach and neighboring regions, many donning scrubs, expressed their support for the item.
“I just worked my seventh day in a row at St. Mary’s. I almost didn’t come because I’m so tired because we’re so understaffed,” said Trent Lumpkins, who works at St. Mary’s Medical Center. “I have coworkers with kids, multiple kids, rent due, car notes […] an increase would help a lot, so I ask that you make the right decision and think about us little people that keep the lights on.”
Celine Castillo, a certified nursing assistant who works at St. Mary’s Medical Center, said that she has to work two jobs to “make ends meet.”
“I’m working hard to follow my calling and serve my community. I have nothing to show for my sacrifices,” Castillo said, choking up at the mic. “We as healthcare workers are feeling broken.”
The move came after the council requested and received an economic study by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), which concluded: “Policymakers should carefully weigh the potential economic and social tradeoffs that may result due to the proposed minimum wage increase.”
The benefits of the increase include increased labor income to low-wage workers in covered healthcare facilities; a potential increase in labor supply and reduced turnover; and a potential short-run increase in morale and productivity, according to the LAEDC report.
The risks include short-run employment losses, particularly for low-wage workers; potential reduced future employment growth; decreased profits, business relocations or closures; and reductions to quality or access to pay for resulting increased labor costs, according to the report.
The study’s scope was limited due to the quick turnaround time necessary to get the item in front of the council before November ballot deadlines. Many questions that council members requested answers to, such as a specific projected impact on healthcare quality or hiring, were left unanswered.
Representatives from hospitals and hospital associations resoundingly urged the council to defer the choice to voters.
Anthony Quinto, representing College Medical Center, called the item “rushed,” and said, “all the risks and benefits weren’t properly explored.”
Kristen Pugh from MemorialCare said the item excludes the majority of healthcare workers in Long Beach and could “deepen inequities in our healthcare system and jeopardize access to care.”
Despite protests from local hospitals, council members unanimously approved a motion to draft an ordinance increasing the specified healthcare wages to $25 an hour. They also requested a report back in five years to study the economic impact of the decision.
Councilmember Suely Saro cited the petition to bring the item forward, which garnered tens of thousands of signatures, as one reason to approve the item immediately rather than pay the estimated $100,000 to $150,000 cost to add the item to the November ballot.
“The health care and minimum wage petition was brought forward by the public and the people have spoken,” Saro said. “They want to take care of health care workers as [they] have taken care of us.”
Councilmember Al Austin said that the minimum wage increase is something that “won’t be achieved in the collective bargaining process, offering wage increases that are really going to transform lives and families.”
Enforcement of the item is estimated to cost the city approximately $1.2 million annually.
The council will have a first reading of the ordinance at next week’s Tuesday, Aug. 9, meeting.
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