LA enacts $25 minimum wage for healthcare workers – Daily News

Healthcare workers in Los Angeles simply obtained a increase.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an ordinance Friday, July 8 that units a $25-an-hour minimum wage for healthcare workers within the metropolis. The legislation covers all personal sector healthcare workers who work in hospitals, built-in well being methods and dialysis clinics.

The measure was accepted final month by the Los Angeles City Council in a 10-0 vote after SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West collected the required quantity of signatures to place the wage hike on the November poll.

Since the measure was initiated by a petition drive, the council may both undertake the initiative or put it earlier than voters. The council opted to enact the measure.

“We applaud Mayor Garcetti and the Los Angeles City Council for their leadership and taking a critical step toward protecting public health and addressing a healthcare worker staffing shortage that threatens Angelenos’ care,” SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan mentioned in a press release.

An SEIU consultant mentioned the wage hike will apply to healthcare workers at greater than 100 amenities all through town.

Opposition to comparable initiatives

The union has filed comparable poll initiatives for 10 different Southern California cities. But some are usually not so fast to assist the concept.

Long Beach and Monterey Park have requested for financial affect research earlier than backing the initiative, and Duarte and Downey are scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether or not to put it on the poll, undertake an ordinance or ask for an financial research.

Nounequalpay.com, a coalition sponsored by the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, is against an across-the-board pay improve, as it might exclude workers who do the identical jobs at public hospitals, clinics and well being care amenities.

The coalition — backed by funding from Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and its hospitals, Dignity Health and the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems — additionally notes that it takes in janitors, housekeepers, safety guards and different non-medical workers.

In a press release launched final month, the coalition mentioned L.A.’s “hasty adoption of this inequitable measure” is unfair for workers, expensive for sufferers and dangerous for Los Angeles.

The coalition mentioned the legislation excludes workers at 90% of healthcare amenities within the metropolis.

“In addition to being inequitable and unfair, the ordinance will jeopardize access to care at local health care providers — especially community clinics and those providers that care for underserved populations,” the group mentioned.

Nearly $9 extra an hour

L.A’s new legislation will give Mauricio Medina a pay improve of practically $9 an hour. He at the moment earns $16.25 hourly working as an authorized nursing assistant at Southern California Hospital at Hollywood.

“This will enable me to focus more on school and becoming a registered nurse,” the 45-year-old Los Angeles resident mentioned. “I’ve put my education on hold for a long time because I’ve been working two or three jobs. This will give me the opportunity to move on and better provide for my family.”

Regan mentioned the council acknowledged “the urgency of the situation” and took decisive motion to guard public well being.

“We look forward to other cities following suit and setting fair wages for healthcare workers,” he mentioned.

Medina mentioned the newly enacted minimum wage will assist entice and retain healthcare workers, a lot of whom are overworked and underpaid.

“We made so many sacrifices to care for our patients during this pandemic, and so many of us are burnt out from years of understaffing and intense workloads,” Medina mentioned. “I hear from many other healthcare workers who are considering leaving the field as the risks of working in a hospital have increased.”

Boosting the minimum wage acknowledges the work healthcare workers do, he mentioned, and it’ll assist maintain them on the job at hospitals throughout L.A.

Delayed affected person care

A current survey of greater than 30,000 SEIU-UHW members, Crisis in Care, highlighted the short-staffing disaster in California, with 83% of healthcare workers saying their facility is understaffed. Up to twenty% mentioned they’ve thought-about leaving the sphere prior to now 12 months.

Sixty-five % of these polled within the report mentioned they had been conscious of affected person care being delayed or denied on account of quick staffing.

This comes as healthcare companies are reporting report earnings.

The SEIU report recommends that medical amenities improve staffing by 10% a 12 months for three years to satisfy rising affected person demand and supply annual raises tied to the price of residing.