The Impact of the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance on Workers and Businesses

Madeline Janis-Aparicio

Apocalypse NOT

It’s not all bad news on the left. The release of Examining the Evidence: The Impact of the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance on Workers and Businesses offers heartening and credible evidence to support the progressive agenda.

For those unaware of what has become a nationwide movement, the living wage idea is about empowering the working poor and providing a wage that allows them to be self-reliant and not dependent on government assistance programs. In most cities, this has come about through ordinances passed by city councils that require government contractors and subsidy recipients (think sports arenas and mega-shopping centers) to pay a living wage of $9 or more dollars plus health benefits. The law has now affected nearly 10,000 workers in the city of Los Angeles, and this study takes a comprehensive look at how the law has played out since its passage in 1997.

Contrary to the fear-mongering of doomsayers, Los Angeles did not turn into a rustbelt tragedy of fleeing businesses and mass unemployment. In fact, just the opposite has occurred. Workers are being compensated better and companies are none the worse for it. Minimal job loss was seen and what firms under the ordinance (primarily city contractors, but also concessionaires and lessees) gained by paying slightly higher wages is less absenteeism and turnover, the ability to attract more highly-skilled workers and an increase morale and productivity.