Minimum wage in Los Angeles is currently $6.75 per hour. Multiply that by 40 and you get $270 per week, amounting to a rather underwhelming yearly salary in the $14,000 range. (Although federal poverty guidelines currently begin at $9,310 for a single person, this will scarcely cover rent in most metropolitan areas.) Take out the necessary tax dollars and add a couple of kids and you'll see that few working adults can possibly subsist on what is considered acceptable by lawmakers. And, according to the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), no working adult should have to.
LAANE is a group of forward-thinking activists who are seeking to improve the conditions of working families while ensuring that businesses remain accountable to their surrounding communities. "Without workers' rights, we cannot effectively fight poverty," maintains LAANE's director of accountable development, Roxana Tynan. "Our problem currently is that existing labor law is heavily weighted against workers."
Among LAANE's most groundbreaking campaigns is the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance, which became law in 1997 due to the efforts of LAANE's Living Wage Coalition, who helped mobilize community activists, labor representatives, clergy, academics and lawmakers to promote social equity for the working class. "Living Wage is one of those creative policies that helps workers organize and directly improve the quality of their life," Tynan says. "Studies have shown, and we are releasing a study together with UCLA on this subject later this year, that earning a living wage lifts families above the poverty line and enables them to move beyond government aid to survive."
In essence, the current ordinance requires city contractors and those employers receiving government subsidies to pay a current "living wage" of $10.03 per hour (or $8.78 with an equivalent of $1.25 in benefits). While workers clearly gain from the availability of health care and an improved standard of living, businesses are eligible for tax credits (insurance premiums are tax-deductible) and can count on a healthier dedicated workforce with improved productivity. By seeking to protect the rights of the working poor, the ultimate goal is to improve the living conditions of all by ending the cycle of poverty and its various debilitating effects: crime, homelessness, gang activities, substance abuse and youth incarceration, among them.
Another aspect of LAANE's activism is seen in their model for Accountable Development, a program that emphasizes community needs in the process of urban planning. "Traditionally residents have not had a real voice in what gets built in their neighborhoods," Tynan explains. "Much of the development which the city has encouraged only creates low-wage, poverty-level, dead-end jobs."
While outside developers may tend to steamroll over affected districts with increasing traffic, pollution and residential displacement, LAANE helps locals negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement that allows for multidimensional enhancement of a viable 24-hour neighborhood.
One example of this type of community-sensitive planning can be found in the NoHo Commons project, a $218-million development located just minutes away from Rhino's Burbank offices in North Hollywood. Situated adjacent to the area's recently opened Metro Red Line station, the project has arranged for enhancement of construction of new "mixed-use" shopping and business facilities with neighborhood improvements such as affordable housing units, a community clinic, childcare center, and public high school. Negotiations by the Valley Jobs Coalition (a LAANE-affiliated group of labor, community and religious organizers) have broken new ground by mandating that 75% of the new jobs created by the project will adhere to Living Wage guidelines; they have also secured funds for low-income job training to facilitate "first source" local hiring. The goal is to preserve the unique character of the community while ensuring that wealth generated by the expansion flows to residents in the immediate vicinity.
LAANE is also currently involved with Accountable Development proceedings in other areas of Los Angeles, with site-specific negotiations seeking to incorporate such benefits as community centers, job programs, parks, and other environmental enhancements. Neighborhood representatives might also be asked for input into the selection of business tenants who will provide jobs and needed services for surrounding residents. "Bringing community residents, community organizations and unions together, we have been able to exercise enough power to intervene in the process with developers," says Tynan.
With numerous other projects in the works—including a moderating role in the plans for proposed LAX expansion and possible revision of the Living Wage Ordinance to include cost-of-living increases—the activists at LAANE clearly have their work cut out for them. In one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the nation—already the second-largest city in the U.S.—it's nice to know that, with LAANE's help, we can still look forward to some beautiful days in our neighborhoods.
For more information about the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, please visit www.LAANE.org.
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