July 2, 2015
LA Minimum Wage
The
Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Eric Garcetti passed a law to increase the
city’s minimum wage from
$9 an hour to $15 incrementally until 2020.
This
decision was a divisive issue among the community according to the city council
members who spoke at the meeting where the bill was debated on June 3rd, JUNE 3, STED JUNE 3RD, PER AP
STYLE but they decided it would benefit the community.
In
a video recording of the Los Angeles City Council meeting that occurred on June
3rd, JUNE 3, STED JUNE 3RD,
PER AP STYLE City Councilman Curren Price Jr. called the bill “the most aggressive
anti-poverty legislation in the nation.”
He
said in the meeting that the measures are necessary because “close to a million of our
citizens are earning a minimum wage.”
In
the same city council meeting, Council President Herb Wesson addressed the
council and said, “This
may be one of the most important votes we take in our entire political careers.”
“The winds in this country do
blow from the west to the east, and cities throughout the U.S. will watch what
we do, and they will do the same so the action that we are taking today will
affect millions,” he said.
RATHER THAN QUOTING A VIDEO, I WOULD
HAVE PREFERERD YOU CONTACT THE COUNCIL MEMBERS DIRECTLY AND HAVE THEM RECITE
THOSE SENTIMENTS. BUT IN A PINCH, THIS WOULD BE BETTER THAN DOING NOTHING
Meirav
Leibovici, the owner of the restaurant Berry Bowl in Highland Park, CA, Calif. OR California IN STORY COPY, STED
CA. CA IS ONLY USED WITH DATELINES, PER AP STYLE said she was very aware of
the struggle to afford life in the city.
As
a business owner though, Leibovici had some other concerns about raising the
minimum wage to try to combat this struggle.
“Living in Los Angeles is
very, very expensive. All the prices are going up every single year. The cost
of living goes up,” she
said.
She
said saw these increases in her own life most clearly when she moved from New
York to Los Angeles.
“It’s all relative. You make more, but you spend more,” she said, citing the
substantial difference between her salaries in the locations but also cost of
one-bedroom apartments.
However,
even the incremental increases from the current minimum wage to $15 over five
years are too quick for businesses to make adjustments, she said.
“I would like it to be more
of a gradual increase,” she
said.
Speaking
particularly about the location in Highland Park, she said that the demand for
her product is there, and that the neighborhood’s residents “can
afford to buy organic coffee and expensive fruits.”
Because
of this, she said she believes there will not be significant negative impacts
on the location as the company can absorb the higher cost of labor by
increasing prices.
She
said that she sees price increases as one of the only solutions for small
businesses who are struggling to cover this extra cost on their payrolls.
“If business owners are able
to charge more for things, they will be able to charge more to cover the costs,” she said.
When
asked about the possibility of the $15 minimum wage spreading to other cities,
Leibovici said she was hesitant to think it would be successful in other areas
less metropolitan than Los Angeles.
“I don’t know that other cities or states are going to be able to
survive with such a high increase,”
she said.
However,
she also said that “people
that are in Arkansas or Kansas City or Idaho” don’t
necessarily have a need for such an increase because “their gas is less, and their rent is less.”
Besides
business owners who must now accommodate paying their employees a higher
minimum wage, the other group most directly impacted by this new law is the
workers being paid the increased wage.
Ryan
Asavisanu, a Los Angeles native recently hired into a minimum wage position
after a period of unemployment, has seen firsthand the struggles people face
living on a minimum wage.
“The biggest struggle is
maintaining a decent standard of living,” he said, mentioning a difficulty balancing making money
with “having a life
outside of just paying your bills.”
He
said he is concerned though that people may be expecting too lavish a standard
of living while working a minimum wage job.
He
said he believes that minimum wage positions exist “as a starting point”
to lead to other professions.
The
lack of disparity between professions is a bad thing, he said.
“It is not going to challenge
people to find professions that they can excel in and strive to make more money
if they are already making more money flipping burgers,” he said, noting that some positions are not worthy of $15
hourly payment in his opinion.
He
said he sees the increase as a positive step towards poverty reform, but not as
an all-encompassing answer.
“It’s not a long term fix. It’s a short term solution,” he said. “In
the end it’s going to
cause everything else to go up, and people are still going to be finding
themselves in that same situation.”
Brad
Street represents a third party in the spectrum of those affected by the law,
those who’s WHOSE, STED WHO’S
wages will not be increased because they are already above $15 an hour.
A
Los Angeles native like Asavisanu, he said he believes that the minimum wage
increase will bring more harm than good to the community.
People,
he said, are concerned about the bill which has caused “a lot of general animosity.”
The
chief concern of those already above the $15 threshold is the possibility of
salary cuts or even job loss, he said.
“People making more will take
pay cuts so the company can pay those suddenly making more, or they will lose
their jobs so the company can pay a few people at minimum wage,” he said when asked about how
he believes companies will adjust to meet the requirements.
He
said he thinks companies are going to want to keep the same total amount for
their payroll budgets as before so they will be “either cutting hours or jobs.”
He
also echoed Leibovici when he
said that the only other option is for companies to adjust by increasing the
cost of their products.
“I think it is just going to
be an inflation spiral, but I don’t
think Los Angeles County leadership is willing to backtrack on a position like
this,” he said.
Word Count: 1025 Words
Sources:
Meirav Leibovici
818-312-7040
Ryan Asavisanu
909-576-8695
Brad Street
626-222-2253
Los Angeles City Council Meeting Video
Approved CNN Article for Source
ASSIGNMENT
GRADE: (REDACTED)
INSTRUCTOR
COMMENTS: GREAT STRUCTURE OVERALL AND GOOD INTERVIEWS, BUT TWO AREAS WHERE I
THINK WE CAN DO BETTER: FIRST, TO ME IT SEEMS LIKE THIS STORY WOULD BE BETTER
TOPPED OFF WITH AN ANECDOTAL LEDE HUMANIZING THE ISSUE BEFORE WE BACK INTO HOW
THE ANECDOTE IS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LARGER ISSUE. THE STRAIGHT LEDE IS FINE,
BUT IT’S RELIANT ON PEOPLE HAVING AN INTEREST
IN THE ISSUE TO SUSTAIN REAIDNG THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH. AN ANECDOTAL LEDE MAY
HAVE GREATER GENERAL INTEREST IN THE HUMAN CONDITION AND PULL PEOPLE INTO A
STORY ON AN ISSUE THEY WOULD OTHERWISE SEE A DISCONNECT. SECOND, THIS STORY
SORELY NEEDS A NEUTRAL EXPERT: AN ECONOMIST WHO CAN CITE RESEARCH INTO THE
EFFECTS GOOD AND BAD OF RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE; A SOCIOLOGIST WHO COULD TALK
ABOUT THE EFFECTS IT HAS ON POVERTY AND BETTERING ONE’S
SELF; PREFERABLY, BOTH. ADDITIONALLY, GETTING A GREATER RANGE OF BUSINESS
OWNERS AND WORKERS WOULD ALSO HELP SEE IF THE RANGE OF
OPINIONS/PERSPECTIVES/EFFECTS IS WIDER THAN INDICATED HERE. I SUSPECT IT IS. AT
LEAST THE LATTER WOULD HAVE A DEFINITE POSITIVE IMPACT ON YOUR REWRITE GRADE,
AND I WOULDN’T MIND SEEING YOU
PLAY WITH THE FORMER TO EXPAND YOUR WRITING STYLE. STILL, A VERY NICE AND SOLID
FIRST EFFORT.
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