While the majority of the Board of Supervisors support raising wages for more than 15,000 low-wage workers, Board President Aaron Peskin stalled them in committee.

At the April 5th, 2006 Budget and Finance Committee meeting, Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who has been on the fence, sided with Supervisors Sean Elsbernd and Bevan Dufty in delaying a decision on the Ammiano / McGoldrick amendments to the Living Wage law.

However, the Board of Supervisors at their April 11th meeting passed the amendment introduced by Supervisors Jake McGoldrick and Tom Ammiano to have the number of work hours required to maintain eligibility for the county General Assistance (GA) grant and Personal Assisted Employment Services (PAES) stipend based on the amount in the living wage law.

The inclusion of single adults in the county workfare program would treat with respect the work that they do—cleaning MUNI buses, sweeping streets and doing janitorial work at General Hospital. GA recipients receive $340 per month for 32 to 40 hours of work.

The amendment will decrease hours to 30 hours per month. The rest of the proposed amendments will significantly raise wages for more than 15,000 low-wage workers: homecare workers, non-profit workers on city service contracts and airport workers.

Also, for the first time CalWORKs parents who work for a welfare grant will be included in the living wage law.

Supervisors Chris Daly and Ross Mirkarimi, who have both signed on as co-sponsors, wanted to send the amendments to the Board for a vote. Supervisor Daly, chair of the committee, has put the amendments on hold until Supervisor Peskin changes his position.

Low-wage workers and their allies are organizing to budge Supervisor Peskin and move these amendments out of committee. In addition, they are campaigning to get Mayor Gavin Newsom to incorporate funding for the wage raises into the budget that he presents to the Board of Supervisors on June 1st, as well as make sure that he signs the amendments into law after the Board passes them.

The key amendments are:

1. Parity for home care and non-profit workers with workers at for-profit companies that contract with the City. Under current law, home care workers and non-profit workers are only required to be paid $9 per hour instead of the $10.77 per hour required for workers at for-profit businesses.
2. Inclusion of CalWORKs parents in the Living Wage law. CalWORKs grants are diverted to private employers that pay them out as wages at the San Francisco minimum wage of $8.82 per hour. Employers would be required to supplement wages for CalWORKs parents to $10.77 per hour.
3. Annual cost-of-living increases based on the Bay Area Consumer Price Index to keep up with inflation. With this year’s Consumer Price Index increase, the hourly rate in the living wage law would rise to $11.04. Improving wages for the least-paid workers performing services for residents improves the standard-of-living of all San Francisco workers, helps revitalize the City’s economic base, and creates more local jobs.

Many of the non-profit and homecare workers live in low-income neighborhoods in San Francisco. When these workers have more dollars in their pockets, they spend in local businesses.

The City contracts out to non-profit agencies to provide valuable services to the community. These non-profit workers care for the elderly and disabled, provide food and shelter to the homeless, mentor youth and provide counseling, legal services and health care to San Francisco residents.

The amendments include new language that the City would make a commitment to budget adequate funding for non-profit organizations so that they can raise wages without laying off staff and cutting services.

If non-profits do not receive adequate funding, they have the protection of getting a waiver, unless they are large enough to be able to absorb the increased labor costs. The criteria for the waiver is that the highest paid managerial position is not paid more than six times the wage of the lowest paid employee.

The cost of increasing funding to non-profits and a county agency for homecare workers is estimated around $20 million annually.

Supporters point out that it is a matter of political priorities for the City to come up with the money. The City found $16 million to renovate the Harding Park area for the World Golf Championship with Tiger Woods.

Please make phone calls and send letters, faxes and emails to:

Board President Aaron Peskin

City Hall, Room 244

1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

San Francisco, CA 94102

Phone 554-7450

Fax 554-7454

Email Aaron.Peskin @sfgov.org

Mayor Gavin Newsom

City Hall, Room 200

Phone 554-6141

Fax 554-6160

Email gavin.newsom@sfgov.org

Urge them to support the Ammiano-McGoldrick Amendments to the Living Wage law.

For more information, contact the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition at 415-513-5393 or sflivingwage@riseup.net.

Karl Kramer

This entry was posted on Monday, May 1st, 2006 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Local Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.