A third city in Los Angeles County has raised the minimum wage to $25 an hour for some private healthcare workers, sparking controversy over the impact on healthcare workers in public hospitals.
City Council on Monday Monterey Park, about seven miles from downtown Los Angeles, voted for a $25 minimum wage for the city’s healthcare workers, just two weeks after the city of Downey did the same.Wage hike wave to follow Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti sign A July 8 decree established a minimum wage of $25 an hour for workers in eligible private healthcare facilities.
While the raise is a win for some, questions remain about where the money will come from.
“They’re going to have to cut costs and services,” said Erin J. McLaughlin, Attorney and shareholder in Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney’s healthcare practice, specializing in labor and employment“And I think that’s really putting additional pressure on an already tight industry, so the question becomes, ‘Can patients get enough care based on where they are?'”
The coalition “Against Equal Pay in Los Angeles” is a group of hospitals and healthcare workers opposed to pay raises. The organization estimates the ordinance excludes 90 percent of healthcare workers. According to McLaughlin, this difference will lead to a greater labor shortage.
“If you guarantee higher minimum wages in private facilities, you’re going to see those workers go to private facilities to find jobs, and we’re going to have a much more dire labor shortage situation at federally qualified health centers,” McLaughlin said. .
The healthcare community is divided by wage growth, with some groups such as SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, a union, praised the raise.
“The pandemic has exacerbated staffing shortages at local hospitals, with many workers leaving the industry due to chronic stress, burnout and low wages,” said Dave Regan, president of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. Press Releases. “We applaud the Monterey Park City Council’s vote to protect residents’ public health and address staffing shortages that threaten patient care. By ensuring healthcare workers receive fair wages that reflect their essential work, Monterey Park can retain and attract the workers it needs, to ensure that the quality of healthcare in the city does not decline.”
union The required number of signatures were collected to increase the minimum wage on every ballot conducted to date.
Opponents say unequal wages will exacerbate an already acute shortage of healthcare workers, as wage increases will only affect a handful of hospitals.
“We can all agree that healthcare workers are heroes — but these unequal pay measures are unfair to workers, harmful and costly to patients, and risky to our communities,” California Hospital Association President George Green after the vote in Los Angeles express. The concern is whether or when healthcare workers in the public health system will quit for not getting a pay raise.
Health care provider filed July 14 lawsuit alleging Mayor Garcetti’s decree Violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the U.S. and California constitutions that the law must treat people in similar situations equally.
“The ordinance ratified in a hurry is unequal and unfair. It excludes staff from 90 percent of health care facilities in the City of Los Angeles for no reason,” Green said. “It discriminates against healthcare workers and providers, and we ask the courts to overturn it.”
California isn’t the only state grappling with how to compensate healthcare workers. In Ohio last week, Adena Health System announced It will raise the wages of caregivers to $15 an hour. The increased minimum wage will affect 14% of Adena’s employees, who will see their hourly wages increase in a phased rollout that begins in September.
Photo: FG Trade, Getty Images
