Hospitals launch campaign to repeal L.A.’s new healthcare minimum wage

Jessica Atondo, an employee of Kaiser Permanente, celebrates last month’s passage of an ordinance boosting the minimum wage for private hospital workers to $25 per hour in L.A. A coalition of Los Angeles hospitals and other health facilities launched a campaign on Tuesday to repeal a newly enacted ordinance boosting the minimum wage for thousands of healthcare workers to $25 per hour, saying the law will have a harmful effect on medical care across the city. Appearing last week at a signing ceremony for the ordinance, he said the wage hike would result in better healthcare, helping hospitals and other facilities retain their workers and reduce employee turnover. After the hospital group launched its effort to halt the wage measure on Tuesday, SEIU-UHW spokesperson Renée Saldaña said that “greedy hospital executives have experienced record pandemic windfalls, yet they have no plan to address the staffing crisis plaguing Los Angeles hospitals.” “They are out of step with local voters if they think the solution is to slash wages for the caregivers who got us through the pandemic,” Saldaña said. “The problem that needs to be addressed is bloated executive compensation that is driving up healthcare costs for Angelenos.” Hospital representatives have portrayed the ordinance as arbitrary and unfair because it covers only a fraction of health facilities, excluding hospitals run by county government, such as Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar and LAC+USC Medical Center, and federally qualified health centers — community clinics that provide care to underserved areas or populations.