Patterico's Pontifications

1/12/2021

Los Angeles County Supervisors Once Again Adept at Being Generous With Someone Else’s Money

Filed under: General — JVW @ 7:48 pm



[guest post by JVW]

When gross pandering meets fiscal irresponsibility:

Grocery and retail drugstore employees who work in unincorporated Los Angeles County could see a pay bump of $5 an hour if the county Board of Supervisors approves a “hero pay” ordinance later this month.

The measure was quickly opposed by grocery industry leaders, who said it could require stores to raise prices at a time when their customers are struggling to make ends meet.

At the L.A. County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Supervisors Hilda Solis and Holly Mitchell put forth the motion that would mandate the pay bump for publicly traded grocery store or retail drug companies, or companies that have at least 300 employees nationwide and have more than 10 employees per store site. If approved by the board, the ordinance would remain in effect for 120 days.

“While there is a light at the end of the tunnel, with the approval and administration of the vaccine, the health threats these workers face are as real as they were at the beginning of the pandemic given the surge of cases in our county,” said board chair Solis in a statement. “It is imperative that we act with urgency to support just compensation for grocery and drug retail employees.”

Note that this applies to unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, presumably because incorporated cities are not under the thumb of our hypocritical and overcompensated supervisors. But unincorporated areas include a whole lot of low-income communities within the Los Angeles Basin, which if they have grocery stores and pharmacies probably aren’t so flush with cash that the extra $200 per week per worker is particularly affordable. The supervisors adopt the progressive argument that these stores are part of large chains which are reportedly doing very well business-wise during the pandemic, and that while providing modest pay raises and one-off bonuses during the spring and summer, on balance they haven’t done nearly enough for their workers. So it’s pretty easy for the supes to freely spend the corporations’ money, and you can be sure they will react with puzzled outrage when the corporations respond by closing up stores in those areas thus creating the so-called “food deserts” that plague lower income neighborhoods across America. For what it’s worth, the left-wing city councils of Los Angeles and Long Beach are considering imposing similar wage edicts for their chain supermarkets and pharmacies.

If the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors were really interested in rewarding those who heroically stayed on the job and served the public, they could pay out higher wages and bonuses to the drivers of Los Angeles County Metro Transit Authority buses and trains, who after all are actually employed by the county. But of course to do that the supervisors would have to dip into their own bloated budget to find the funding for this windfall, and heaven knows that would require the supes to make cuts to other county programs. It turns out that it is a hell of a lot easier for them to demand that the private sector reward its employees than it is for the supes to scrape together the funds to reward their own.

– JVW

26 Responses to “Los Angeles County Supervisors Once Again Adept at Being Generous With Someone Else’s Money”

  1. In case anyone else wants a break from the goings-on in Washington, or just wants to marvel at how one large and relatively wealthy county can be so impressively obtuse.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  2. Don’t you understand, JVW? If the government would just set the minimum wage at $100 per hour everywhere, all of our problems would go away.

    norcal (b4d7b1)

  3. “It is imperative that we act with urgency to support just compensation for grocery and drug retail employees.”

    If the employees feel that the compensation is “unjust”, they can seek other lines of work. It’s not a slave situation, unless one believes in Marxism. The fact that state and local governments in California interject themselves in so many things is why businesses are fleeing the state.

    Hey stupidvisors, it’s called the free market. Stop trying to carve out exceptions to it. It doesn’t matter if it’s the minimum wage, rent control, or taxi medallions. They are counterproductive.

    norcal (b4d7b1)

  4. Do the re——sta towns have a lifeline now? Would it be worth it for a company to move say from a parcel in unincorporated LAC near, for example, Vernon to Vernon proper (perhaps only if a ready to occupy property was available)?

    urbanleftbehind (07bdfc)

  5. Well, I like the self-checkout machines better anyway.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  6. The City of Los Angeles did this a few years back with hotel employees in the LAX area. What happened? Every parking lot got changed to self-pay machines, the hotel implores you to keep the same sheets and towels “to save water” and the maids and others who weren’t worth the extra pay are now without jobs.

    The minimum wage is zero if you aren’t working.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  7. Is most important thing missing from discussion. What is LA County’s cut from income tax, employment tax, and unemployment tax, or is employees take whole $5.00 home?

    nk (1d9030)

  8. Also, how many comrades will go above income threshold for SNAP and Medicaid and other government nets?

    nk (1d9030)

  9. Anyway … when discussion is over about what politicians do for people out of sheer kindness of heart unwise though it might be, maybe you can help me with a question that has been nagging me for more than fifty years: Just what exactly was John Steed’s and Mrs. Peel’s relationship?

    nk (1d9030)

  10. So glad I don’t live in California. Wildfires. Earthquakes. Mud slides. Drought. And then dysfunctional politics.

    The beaches must be nice because I don’t see how anyone stays there.

    Hoi Polloi (093fb9)

  11. ->

    their customers are struggling to make ends meet.

    Customers, AKA citizens are not the priority to the government.

    The benefit of voting for millionaires.

    BillPasadena (5b0401)

  12. @10 tbf, the weather *is* pretty nice in southern cal.

    whembly (3b5b58)

  13. What is LA County’s cut from income tax, employment tax, and unemployment tax, or is employees take whole $5.00 home?

    None that I know of. CA counties are supported by property tax, service fees and some portion of the sales tax. There are other government transfers at times, but no direct income tax or payroll tax.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  14. Just what exactly was John Steed’s and Mrs. Peel’s relationship?

    Platonic. The day her husband returned from ??? she GONE and replaced by Tara King.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  15. the weather *is* pretty nice in southern cal.

    It is nicer than anywhere in the continental US, particularly along the coast. Hawaii might give it a run for its money. On the waterfront, max high: 85, min low 50. Humidity < 50% at all times.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  16. The benefit of voting for millionaires.

    If you own a house in So Cal, you probably are a millionaire. If just in house.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  17. This story has nothing to do with “fiscal irresponsibility”, unless you consider the failure to give bus drivers a raise irresponsible.

    Dave (1bb933)

  18. norcal (b4d7b1) — 1/12/2021 @ 9:17 pm

    unless one believes in Marxism

    There are people in CA reading this thinking “what does he mean unless?”. There are others thinking “heresy continues, we must redouble our efforts!”.

    frosty (f27e97)

  19. It is nicer than anywhere in the continental US, particularly along the coast. Hawaii might give it a run for its money. On the waterfront, max high: 85, min low 50. Humidity < 50% at all times.

    Do you miss the change of seasons?

    Hoi Polloi (093fb9)

  20. Wilsonian progressivism. Paying workers a decent wage is the antidote to Marxism. Fascism too. The downside, it enables Bikers For Trump. Have you priced a Harley?

    nk (1d9030)

  21. “The beaches must be nice because I don’t see how anyone stays there”

    I guess it depends where in the state you are at…and how much you enjoy doing activities outdoors year round. It is very expensive…and property is outrageous….and people can be pretty weird…but the views are incredible and there is a lot to do…

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  22. This story has nothing to do with “fiscal irresponsibility”

    The government ordering private businesses to give large raises? It is fiscally irresponsible, although that’s not my first objection. More like “Is this a form of forced speech?”

    “Money is speech” — Justice Stevens

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  23. Of all the invasive species to infest California, the hippies have probably been the least predatory. But like the gold diggers of 1849 who drew the gamblers and prostitutes, the hippies attracted the politicians.

    nk (1d9030)

  24. Do you miss the change of seasons?

    I live now in a place where it is 100 in summer with lows in the teens in winter. What I miss is wearing a t-shirt and flip-flops in February and never needing A/C. There other things I don’t miss(e.g. traffic, leftist morality as law), but no one has ever left SoCal because they want to shovel snow.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  25. nk,

    It was the locusts from the east coast who brought their politics. You know how people complain that Californians are infesting their pure Red state? Dial that back 40 years and it was New Yorkers coming to CA.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  26. I agree, Kevin.

    nk (1d9030)


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