Posted on 05/05/2007 7:31:27 PM PDT by jazusamo
A judge Friday delivered a stinging rebuke to Los Angeles' labor and political leadership, barring the city from enforcing a ballyhooed new ordinance that would have extended the city's "living wage" protections to workers at hotels near Los Angeles International Airport.
The eight-page order by Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe went far beyond merely blocking a law that had been considered a point of pride for the city's powerful labor interests. As a practical matter, Yaffe dealt a political defeat to the City Council, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the union that championed the law.
During a yearlong political and legal battle, the council and mayor approved two different laws extending the living wage to hotel workers.
But in the process, they alienated the city's business community and, according to Yaffe's ruling, violated the constitutional rights of the public — without improving the wages and benefits of the thousands of workers the ordinances were supposed to help.
Under the ordinance, workers would have been guaranteed wages and benefits equal to $10.64 an hour.
In blunt language, Yaffe accused the city's elected leaders of "bad faith" in the complex political machinations they used to adopt the ordinance in February.
Last fall, the City Council passed an ordinance extending the living wage to airport-area hotel workers. The legislation was groundbreaking because the living wage had previously applied only to workers at government contractors and other firms with a direct financial relationship with the city.
The move was in some ways symbolic. About half of the 3,500 workers at airport-area hotels already earn salaries greater than the living wage....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Sooo... what exactly is a living wage (do people die without one)?
Hah! I don’t think people die without it but small business sure can with it. Isn’t it wonderful that city polititions and unions can get together and tell a business what to pay their employees? At least this judge has some sense.
Send the illegals home if they want wages to go up.
Living Wage - Socialism. The Soviets had a ‘living wage’ yet somehow the people in Russia just didn’t find it all that appealing.
> Sooo... what exactly is a living wage (do people die without one)?
There is no such thing as “Tipping” in New Zealand (and to a lesser extent in “West Island” AKA Australia) because our service industry is paid a “living wage” — or so the theory goes.
There — that knocks at least 10%-20% off just about any service you can imagine. Go to the bar, have a pint: $6.00 on the nail. Take out of your pocket a $5 note and a $1 coin. That’s all.
Pizza delivery, two large, $20 on the nail. Take out of your pocket two $10 notes and hand ‘em over.
Hotel room, $100 per nite for two nites. $200 will show up on your next American Express bill — that’s it!
Dinner for two at a fancy-schmansy restaurant: $250 including wine. Waiter notices that you have a foreign-sounding North American Accent and hands you your credit card check, with $250 on the top line and the bottom line vacant. You wreck his day by being a local, fill in the bottom line for $250 and sign. No harm, no foul.
*That* is what a “living wage” is all about. Why should you have to subsidize a business by paying their staff? That is legitimately the responsibility of the business owner.
“Living Wage” is a wonderful idea, a great Innovation that works well DownUnder. America should adopt it nationwide, immediately.
*DieHard*
Sounds like a good deal! But I think our definition of a “fair wage” is something completely different than what you have going on.
“living wage”
> Sounds like a good deal! But I think our definition of a “fair wage” is something completely different than what you have going on.
Hmmm... reading it thru it actually sounds similar. Maybe you should embrace their proposal, and then announce unilaterally that, seeing how everyone is getting a “living wage”, Tips will no long be necessary or indeed forthcoming.
I bet there will be plenty of back-pedalling attempted if you do! No matter, make it stick: tell them “no, you all were right all along — your bosses *should* be paying you a living wage. Tips are for slaves, and you should have your Human Dignity. After all, the Emancipation Proclamation has been in effect for over 150 years!”
The Living Wage is one of the very, very FEW Socialist ideas that I buy into 100%. Believe it or not, our quality of service is no better and no worse than it is in the US. Go figure...!
It really is *that cool* a concept.
“”Send the illegals home if they want wages to go up.””
This nation needs to do this, but they will not. Our elected officials are afraid of a third world country. They are afraid of being called racist.
>> “”Send the illegals home if they want wages to go up.””
>
> This nation needs to do this, but they will not. Our elected officials are afraid of a third world country. They are afraid of being called racist.
It would be much easier if you passed a Federal Law requiring all employers — no matter how small — to pay staff nothing less than a “Living Wage” of say $10 per hour. Nothing less. Violaters will be punished severely with imprisonment of six months per count, cumulative not concurrent.
The fly-by-nite operators will go out of business because the illegals will threaten to report them. Good — their businesses are unsustainable and deserve to go belly-up. Why should they get cheap labor from people who are breaking the law?
Real, legitimate operations would pay the “Living Wage” and keep vigilant records, for fear of imprisonment. The Tax Take would therefore go up, and greater care in employment practises would help ensure that illegals were caught rather than encouraged.
Eventually, the illegals will seek greener pastures elsewhere, like say Canada...
Win-win situation.
The person who keeps my electricity on deserves a living wage, but he person who delivers my pizza or pours me a pint deserves to be judged on their service. I give very generous tips, but I reserve the right to withhold them!
bookmark
....Waiting for Atlas to shrug.
> The person who keeps my electricity on deserves a living wage, but he person who delivers my pizza or pours me a pint deserves to be judged on their service. I give very generous tips, but I reserve the right to withhold them!
That’s too much hard work on your behalf! I don’t know why you put up with that...
We get around that in a different way, believe it or not. We give our business to places whose staff treat us well, and we stay away in droves from those who don’t.
The business owner tends to weed out his/her deadwood on that basis, real fast: as is only good and right and just. As a consumer, you should not have to take responsibility for a business owner’s Human Resources issues. Staff evaluation and remuneration is NOT your job, and neither should you be made to do so by lazy business owners.
Good businesses treat their good staff really well — like the treasured business assets that they actually are — and these businesses are rewarded by heavy patronage from repeat satisfied customers. The deadwood gets sorted out by the marketplace and punished accordingly. Severely.
Much, much more effective!
So say they get their “living wage” of $10/hr. What’s to prevent the next communist mayor and city leaders to decide two years later that a much better living wage would be $40/yr?
Living wage is simply a buzz word....like global warming. If you can’t make it off a local salary there in LA...then you need to move. Its real simple. I know of a guy who went to Silicon Valley...he was offered $120k a year and his wife was so proud of this $60k payraise. They arrived and found that a simple two-bedroom apartment in the local area was in the $2500 range per month. By the time taxes were taken out and the cost of living figured in....there was no pay raise. They’d been better to stay where they were and avoid the hassle, stress and crime of California. This is the sad fact of living in California...there are no gains.
Great solution, if you are in the "ends justifies the means" crowd.
I'm not.
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