State Sen. Mar铆a Elena Durazo鈥檚 bill would require health facilities and home health agencies to give raises to many support employees, including nurse technicians, housekeepers, security guards, food workers, and laundry providers. The Los Angeles Democrat said workers remain underpaid even as they have played a crucial role in the covid-19 pandemic. Now, she argued, many who earn close to the state鈥檚 $15.50 minimum wage struggle with inflation.
鈥淗ow do people survive?鈥� Durazo told KHN ahead of the bill鈥檚 introduction. 鈥淭hey can鈥檛 be on the edge of becoming homeless. That鈥檚 what we鈥檙e facing.鈥�
While the bill is backed by the influential Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, which represents roughly 100,000 workers statewide, similar proposals have previously faced strong opposition from the health industry.
If lawmakers approve the bill and Gov. Gavin Newsom signs it, one labor leader estimated, 1.5 million California workers could get a wage hike come January 2024.
Last year, the union spent about $11 million to promote in 10 Southern California cities while hospitals and health care facilities spent $12 million against them. That fight yielded in November in two cities where the measure made the ballot: Inglewood voters approved raises at private hospitals and dialysis clinics, while voters in Duarte rejected the wage hike.
During the campaign, a ballot issue committee with funding from Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, Adventist Health, Cedars-Sinai, Dignity Health, and other hospitals and health systems warned that a $25 minimum wage would raise their costs.
Earlier this month, the California Hospital Association launched a campaign to ask lawmakers for an extra in the state budget for Medi-Cal, the state鈥檚 insurance program for people with low incomes and disabilities. In a Feb. 9 memo, Carmela Coyle, the association鈥檚 president and CEO, wrote that hospitals need urgent financial relief, citing inflation and mounting costs: 鈥淗elp is needed 鈥� immediately.鈥�
Meanwhile, the nursing home industry has said it wants to pay workers more but can鈥檛 because the state reimburses them too little for patients enrolled in Medi-Cal. And the dialysis industry has shelled out more than $300 million over the past six years to defeat sponsored by SEIU-UHW to increase staffing at clinics.
Negotiations for a statewide $25 minimum wage collapsed in the legislature last summer, in part because union leaders and the hospital association had tied the raise to a delay in costly earthquake upgrades at hospitals. The by the California Nurses Association, the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, and other unions concerned about their workers鈥� safety. The California Dialysis Council also opposed it.
Durazo said she鈥檚 willing to hear hospitals鈥� concerns about loosening seismic retrofit standards but prefers to treat the two issues separately.
The state has also recognized the need to attract and retain workers by setting aside roughly to help the industry address workforce shortages. But labor leaders say workers need a financial incentive.
鈥淲e have a workforce that has just been through the wringer in the last three years,鈥� said Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW. 鈥淎nd lots of health care workers decided, you know, this is just too difficult. It鈥檚 too exhausting. It鈥檚 too dangerous.鈥�
Raising the minimum wage would bring families out of poverty, said Joanne Spetz, director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California-San Francisco. But whether the bill will solve chronic workforce shortages is unclear because wages are just one factor.
Costlier employees could have negative consequences for health care facilities.
鈥淚f you don鈥檛 get higher reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers, then you鈥檙e gonna have to figure out how to absorb that cost increase,鈥� Spetz said. 鈥淥r you just get rid of the worker.鈥�
Since Inglewood passed its measure, the wage hike has transformed Byron Vasquez鈥檚 life, giving him more time with his family. A distribution technician at Centinela Hospital Medical Center, Vasquez earned $21.17 an hour restocking supplies on every floor. But he said that he needed to take additional work to support his wife and daughter 鈥� and that he often missed family celebrations.
鈥淏efore the increase, I was working two or three jobs to make ends meet,鈥� said Vasquez, who until recently worked weekend shifts at a residential care center in Beverly Hills and drove for Uber. 鈥淚t was not fun because there鈥檚 really no time off.鈥�
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