When Los Angeles lawmakers voted to gradually raisethe citywide minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, Santa Monica leaders pledged their coastal city soon would follow suit.

Now the Santa Monica City Council is poised to pass a wage hike that matches the landmark boost approved in Los Angeles earlier this year.

But Santa Monica is also considering including a measure that was shelved in L.A. after furious debate: allowing unionized businesses to waive the new wage requirements if their workers agree to do so.

When the idea came up publicly in Los Angeles, late in the debate over the minimum wage hike, labor leaders argued it was a routine provision to help the city withstand legal challenges and let workers trade increased pay for other benefits.


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But business groups attacked the provision, contending it was a scheme to boost union membership by giving companies an incentive to unionize and avoid paying higher wages.

Los Angeles lawmakers ultimately moved forward without the hotly contested provision, which they said they would continue to study before the wage increases begin next year.

In Santa Monica, lawmakers asked city staffers to include such wording in their proposed ordinance, echoing similar language that is already included in a city law setting wage requirements for Santa Monica city contractors.


“We would like to be consistent with our past practice,” said Santa Monica City Manager Rick Cole. He said that Santa Monica had avoided the kind of controversy that the same provision attracted in Los Angeles, in part, because of “the last-minute nature of the L.A. discussion.”

The proposal says that the wage requirements can be waived in a labor agreement negotiated between workers and their employer, but only if it is done “explicitly” and “in clear and unambiguous terms.” The Santa Monica City Council is scheduled to consider the minimum wage proposal Tuesday.

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