(Nov. 13, 2015) -- The City has released a study, prepared at the City Council's request by the L.A. County Economic Development Corporation, providing its assessment of benefits/impacts if the Council implements a citywide minimum wage.

To view the full document, click here.

It summarizes its findings in an Executive Summary as follows:

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[LAEDC study text]

Many jurisdictions across the nation are currently implementing or considering local minimum wage ordinances that raise the hourly rate above state and federal mandated levels:

The design of these ordinances differ in terms of the exemptions, phase-in periods and waivers;

Enforcement strategies are universally reactive to employee complaints.

Within the City of Long Beach:

Approximately 70 percent of the residential population is of working age;

The median household income in Long Beach was $54,511 in 2014, with 47 percent of households earning less than $50,000 per year and 12.2 percent earning over $150,000 per year

Approximately 26 percent of the working residents of Long Beach hold jobs in the City of Long Beach—others commute to jobs elsewhere;

Of all payroll jobs in the City of Long Beach, only 23 percent are held by residents of Long Beach.

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If a policy similar to that adopted by the City of Los Angeles were implemented in Long Beach, many workers in Long Beach will be impacted:

Unambiguously, employed workers who are currently earning less than the proposed minimum wage (at each step) and who retain their positions will receive a higher hourly rate for their work;

However, as with any regulatory change, a minimum wage policy will induce responses from all economic actors in the region -- including motivating changes in employee and worker behavior that may have secondary effects, such as:

Working more productively to "earn" the higher wage

Inducing non-working residents to join the labor market

Allowing existing or new employees to accept wages below the new minimum in exchange for informal employment when formal employment is not available;

In the "best case" scenario, approximately 33,000 workers would be affected by 2017 if the minimum wage were $12.00 per hour, receiving an increase in annual earnings on average of $940 (over current earnings), and approximately 45,700 workers would be affected as the minimum wage reaches $15.00 per hour in 2020, receiving an increase in annual earnings on average of $5,160 (over current earnings);

In the "worst case" scenario, up to 14,000 workers would be most at risk of being negatively impacted through reduced hours, job loss or substitution by 2017; this number would grow to 20,700 by 2020.

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Firms that currently employ minimum wage workers and who will be impacted by future increases will likely respond to their increased labor costs using one or more of the following strategies:

Increasing prices, as 93 percent of all business with minimum wage workers responding to our survey state is likely;

Absorbing cost increases through reduced profits, as 90 percent of employers with minimum wage workers responding to our survey say is likely;

Substituting the lowest-skilled workers with employees that are more productive, as 70 percent of employers of minimum wage workers responding to the survey say they will expect their employees to take on additional duties;

Reducing employment by eliminating jobs, as ten percent of employers with minimum wage workers responding to our survey believe is likely, or by cutting hours of existing employees, as three percent of such employers believe is likely;

Reducing or delaying future employment by not replacing voluntarily separated workers;

Smaller firms have the fewest options for managing cost increases and impacts will be more pronounced.

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Over the long term, the relative costs of capital and labor may encourage more automation. At the time the LAEDC survey was fielded, 29 percent of employers of minimum wage workers were undecided about the likelihood of substituting capital for labor. However, this is a trend that has been underway for most of the twentieth century and will continue into the twenty-first as well.

If this were to occur, transitioning displaced workers into other occupations may be challenging if such workers face skills mismatches;

Employment opportunities for those at the bottom of the skills ladder will be diminished, including youth;

Business operations will become more efficient as marginal firms close or relocate.

Given the number of jurisdictions surrounding Long Beach, many of which have not indicated any intention of adopting similar minimum wage policies, regional dynamics will come into play through such influences as:

Enlarging the pool of labor available to Long Beach employers, allowing firms to be more selective in their choice of hires and thus able to replace current (or departing) lower-skilled employees with others who have higher levels of skills and productivity;

Heightening the competition faced by firms in neighboring cities for the best-performing minimum wage workers as these employees defect to opportunities in Long Beach, likely leading to wage hikes in those cities;

As more cities in the region adopt similar policies, competition among neighboring cities in both labor markets and goods markets will become less of an issue.

LBREPORT.com reports this news as breaking without having reviewed the document or seeking comments/pro con. Further to follow.