Press Release: September 8, 2014 Sonoma County Living Wage campaign
Marty Bennett
North Bay Jobs with Justice list:
For Immediate Release Contact: Marty Bennett, (707) 510-1420,
Monday, Sept. 8, 2014 mben...@vom.com
Sonoma County Coalition Unveils Countywide Living Wage Proposal and Study of its Fiscal Impact
Report Finds Ordinance Would Have “Small” Impact on County’s Budget and “Modest Cost Increase” for Covered Businesses
Santa Rosa, Calif. — A Sonoma County coalition of labor, faith, environmental and community organizations publicly unveiled today a living wage ordinance that, among other things, calls for a $15 an hour minimum wage—or “living wage”—that could affect up to 5,000 currently low-wage workers with employment ties to the county. The event also included the release of an independent study of the costs and benefits to the county associated with the proposed ordinance. The coalition—which includes North Bay Organizing Project, North Bay Jobs with Justice, North Bay Labor Council, Sierra Club, and Sonoma County Conservation Action—plans to propose the living wage law to the county’s Board of Supervisors this fall.
Mandating a $15 an hour minimum wage tied to the Consumer Price Index annually, the proposed law would cover regular county employees; In-Home Supportive Service workers; county service contractors with contracts of at least $20,000, in the case of for-profit firms, or $50,000, in the case of nonprofits; lease, concession and franchise agreement holders with gross receipts greater than $350,000; and recipients of business subsidies from the county exceeding $100,000. Employers would have to work at least two days a week on county contracts to fall under the legislation.
The 8-page ordinance would also entitle covered employees to 22 days off per year (12 paid and 10 unpaid), promote full-time work among current employees, strengthen employee retention, seek to establish labor harmony at the workplace, and favor county service contractors with a record of compliance with labor, health and safety, and environmental regulations.
“By approving the proposed ordinance the Board of Supervisors can provide the leadership and vision necessary to address the growing inequality and crisis of low-wage work in the county,” said Marty Bennett, co-chair of North Bay Jobs with Justice.
In addition to local elected officials and representatives of local organizations, the event included the author of a 50-page study of the fiscal impact of the proposed ordinance on Sonoma County. In her report, Jeannette Wicks-Lim, assistant research professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, wrote:
“The living wage ordinance will impose a relatively modest cost increase for covered businesses, typically in the range of 0.2 percent to 4.5 percent of their total revenue, depending on their industry. Costs transmitted to the County will be smaller still, equal to less than 0.03 percent of the County’s total budget of $1.4 billion or 0.1 percent of the County’s General Fund of $390 million for FY2014-15. … This increase in County spending, including the costs for all [covered workers except In-Home Supportive Service workers], amounts to less than $3 annually per Sonoma County household.”
When taking all covered workers into account, including IHSS workers, Wicks-Lim found that a $15 minimum wage “would have a small impact on Sonoma County’s fiscal budget, in the range of 0.4 percent to 0.9 percent of the total budget (or 1.6 percent to 3.1 percent of the General Fund). An increase in government spending of this size is equal to $37 to $73 per Sonoma County household.”
If approved, the countywide living wage law would place Sonoma among the 140 cities and counties around the country with similar laws already in the books. Of these localities, 33 are in California and include the Counties of Sacramento, San Francisco, Ventura, Los Angeles, Marin and Santa Cruz, as well as the Port of Oakland and the San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles international airports. Two cities, San Francisco and San Jose, have gone even further, implementing citywide minimum wage laws covering most low-wage workers.
In Sonoma County, three cities—Sebastopol (in 2003), Sonoma (2004) and Petaluma (2006)—have already passed living wage laws. In 2014, the living wage rate in Sebastopol is $16.13 an hour; Sonoma is $15.76 an hour; and in Petaluma $15.32 an hour. In each city the mandated hourly rate is lower if covered employers provide medical benefits worth at least $1.50 an hour.
“I was a member of the city council in 2006 when we passed our living wage ordinance,” Petaluma Mayor David Glass said. “Subsequently, the law has proven to be good public policy with only modest costs to the city—I am proud to say that Petaluma is a living wage city.”
##For more information on the local coalition behind the Sonoma County living wage ordinance, please visit: northbayjobswithjustice.org.