As surely as autumn follows summer, the County Board of Supervisors was destined once again to follow the lead of the Los Angeles City Council and force all County businesses to send the minimum wage soaring – to $15 an hour by 2020.
Continuing to emulate the City Council, the Supervisors also will give smaller County businesses — with fewer than 25 employees – an extra year to implement the highest wage in the land.
When the Supervisors’ roll is called tomorrow morning, the anticipated vote is 4-1, with Michael Antonovich, the only opponent, dissenting.
First-year Supervisor Hilda Solis, a reliable left-winger, delayed the original vote last month.
The former U.S. Labor Secretary from East Los Angeles demurred on the grounds she needed to know more about the effect of such a soaring wage increase on small businesses in unincorporated territory.
In a finger-snap, a study was commissioned, and Ms. Solis nodded her expected vigorous assent without even remotely disclosing her findings.
With the votes of fellow leftists Mark Ridley-Thomas and fellow freshman Sheila Kuehl locked up, no one in the agency doubted that Ms. Solis would endorse the record raise.
“I have been supportive since the beginning,” Ms. Solis told the Los Angeles Times. “But I wanted to make sure that County resources were focused in on how we move through the transition.”
Critics said that the approval of the newcomer, a lifetime labor union backer, never was in doubt, although there are indications she has misgivings, trumped by her union loyalty.
Ms. Solis and Republican Don Knabe, who may vote no, are concerned enough about the new burden for small businesses that they have agreed a group should be organized to presumably help small businesses make the changeover.
Among the options are said to be waiving permit fees, streamlining the licensing process and revising the bidding process for County contracts.
