Ms. Allen: I'm Kristi Allen, chairman of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and Vice President of hotel operations for Ensemble Real Estate. On behalf of the Chamber and our leadership, we welcome the opportunity to give comments tonight.
First and foremost as we move this process forward, the Chamber remains committed to protecting its members and businesses from any type of ordinance that puts them at a competitive disadvantage. But, given the momentum for increasing the minimum wage around the region and in some parts of the country, we know this conversation needs to take place in Long Beach.
Also, we are extremely appreciative that it is currently a conversation and discussion of process rather than outright an ordinance. Per the agenda item, we agree that empirical data needs to be collected and in a way that is relevant to Long Beach, not to any other city or region.
The hiring of LAEDC is a favorable approach and we appreciate the direction of including the potential benefits and risks of implementing a citywide minimum wage in Long Beach. Even more important is the fact that the study will include proposals for incentives, tax breaks, fee reductions and/or process improvements to assist businesses and non-profit organizations in complying with the potential higher minimum wage.
The Chamber is proud to be part of this process and offers its assistance in coordinating outreach and public input as the LAEDC calls for it and sees fit. In fact, we would like to start the process by partnering with the Business Improvement Districts, such as DLBA, Bixby Knolls, Belmont Shores [sic], East Anaheim, Uptown, the new MBID (midtown) and other business areas not represented by a specific BID.
Included in this process as well we would like to reach out to you, the Mayor and the City Councilmembers to work to keep the study moving in a direction that would benefit all.
As you know, a majority of businesses operate on a relatively small profit margin, especially restaurants. When wages increase, many forget the employer has to account for payroll taxes and increases to employer contributions such as social security, medicare, unemployment and disability insurance. As wages go up, so do these additional contributions by the employer who has to take into consideration the overall payroll cost. This impact on employers, and this aspect of raising the minimum wage, is rarely talked about and is something we would like to discuss when the time is right during the study.
Thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight and for allowing our comments on this item.
Mr Murchison: My name is Mike Murchison and a while back, several months ago, we formed the Long Beach Business Alliance, Gary DeLong and I did. We hosted a forum at the Long Beach Airport Mariott, there were 50 business owners and executive directors from non-profits. To a person that left that, they were, number one, shocked and surprised by the developments that were moving forward in the City of Los Angeles at the time, and now with what's going on this evening, they recognize that a study is needed, however they want to make sure that it's a comprehensive study, Mayor as you alluded to and the Vice Mayor alluded to.
But some of the things that you will read in the LAEDC report, and I've shared that with about 100 different business owners already because we've met with the Belmont Shore Business Association and other various groups, is that teenagers are going to be impacted, it was mentioned earlier a couple of minutes ago. Social service workers will be impacted. In-home health care workers will be impacted. So we all focus on restaurants and the owners and to a great degree they're going to be impacted, and you're going to hear about it from them, as they form their groups, as they come together and tell you their stories individually how they're going to be an increase in disability insurance, unemployment insurance, payroll taxes, workers comp. But some of these other areas I don't think everybody takes into account.
Teenagers: what are they going to do when they can't compete against experienced workers for that same hourly wage? How is that going to work? How are you going to address the Boys and Girls Club and the Boy Scouts here in Long Beach when they have to cut workers and they have to cut programs because they can't afford that kind of budget moving forward?
Ultimately I think you need to see what's going to happen with Senate Bill 3 up at the state of California; maybe your City Attorney can chime in on what's going to happen when the state passes that bill and its impact on the City of Long Beach.
Last but not least: the City of Long Beach has hourly workers. What's going to happen with your own budget here in the City? How does that impact the General Fund? You have hourly workers just like restaurants do. I ask you to include that in your studies. I encourage you to reach out to business owners, to non-profits and to the in-home health care workers. They need to be heard. Thank you very much.
