Business Gives Living Wage Proposal Thumbs Down

By Jorge Casuso

Friday, June 25 -- Humbug. That was the general sentiment of Santa Monica's business community Thursday night after glimpsing an unprecedented living wage proposal for tourist-related businesses.

The proposal by Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism (SMART) would impose a $10.69 minimum wage on businesses with more than 50 employees in the city's coastal zone, which runs from the ocean to Fourth Street north of Pico Blvd. and to Lincoln Blvd. south of Pico.

If the proposal goes to the city council and gains approval, it would be the nation's first local living wage law.

"This thing is discriminating as hell," said Bayside District chair Herb Katz, after the board that oversees the downtown area was briefed on the proposal. "You can ruin a lot of businesses by doing it."

"I have a real problem that people on one side would be affected and those on the other side won't," said board member John Warfel.

The proposed measure is targeted at "large corporations that can afford to pay higher wages," said Liz Barr, an organizer for SMART, who made the presentation.

"There is a subculture within the tourism industry living in poverty," Barr said. "Forty percent still have to go to food banks."

Bayside officials, however, warned that the proposal would not only target the large hotels, but it would hurt independent-owned businesses with roots in the city.

"We couldn't be competitive," said Bayside board member Ruth Elwell, whose pub and restaurant Ye Olde Kings Head has more than 50 employees. "I think it would jeopardize our business in this town."

Bayside District board members also fear the proposal could jeopardize the Promenade's restaurants, which are already being nudged out by retail stores that can better afford the bustling strip's high rents.

"It's counter productive," said Bayside director Kathleen Rawson. "We lose the restaurants on the street, we lose the ambiance, tourism goes down, nobody has a job. Businesses are very, very concerned."

Some business leaders view the measure as the local Hotel Workers and Restaurant Workers Union's way of garnering higher wages and benefits they have failed to win through organizing.

"This really is a union issue," Warfel said. "If the union is strong enough and organizes well, that's where the battle's to be fought. To use the back door to pass a union wage is blatantly hypocritical and unfair."

The proposal - which also includes clauses to give residents first crack at jobs and protect workers from retaliation by management - "is absolutely a work in progress," Barr said.

"It has to be done in increments," she said, referring to targeting the coastal zone instead of seeking a citywide ordinance. "We didn't want to do something and have this noble defeat. If we lose, we don't help anyone."