`LIVING WAGE' DRAWS FIRE; CHAMBER SEES HARM TO SMALL BUSINESS.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer A proposed ordinance A law, statute, or regulation enacted by a Municipal Corporation. An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been to require county contractors to pay employees a ``living wage'' of no less than $8.32 an hour is drawing opposition from the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, which says it would hurt small businesses. The living-wage ordinance would create barriers for small businesses, adding administrative chores and dictating hiring practices, said Norm Hickling, the chamber's president-elect. ``The `Living Wage' program's mandated increases in hourly wages/benefits will force small businesses from competing for county contracts,'' Hickling said in a position paper prepared for the county Board of Supervisors The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. The Board of Supervisors is the body governing counties in the U.S. . ``For the most part, businesses will be required to forgo their management of day-to-day activities to achieve the regulatory requirements Regulatory requirements are part of the process of drug discovery and drug development. Regulatory requirements describe what is necessary for a new drug to be approved for marketing in any particular country. of this ordinance. This is completely beyond the scope of the county government's role in working with the private sector.'' The Board of Supervisors is considering an ordinance requiring county contractors to pay employees actually servicing county contracts no less than $8.32 an hour with employer-paid health insurance provided or $9.46 an hour without insurance. The board will take up the issue at its meeting Tuesday. Supporters argued that the living wage is needed to help lift workers out of poverty. Among the supporters are unions representing county workers that are concerned privatization privatization: see nationalization. privatization Transfer of government services or assets to the private sector. State-owned assets may be sold to private owners, or statutory restrictions on competition between privately and publicly owned efforts are costing the county jobs. A similar ordinance was adopted by the city of Los Angeles
County officials estimate the ordinance would cost about $24 million a year. That figure could go up to $30 million if the wage requirements also were applied to county employees. In a May 20 notice to its members, the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce said county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich Michael Dennis Antonovich (born 1939 in Los Angeles, California) is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors representing the Fifth District, which covers northern Los Angeles County, the Antelope, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, and parts of the San Fernando and San was seeking testimony against the ordinance. By May 24, the chamber had received 75 responses in opposition to the proposed law. ``This is another attack on small-businesspeople,'' Hickling said. ``The general response (from members) is that this is another encroachment An illegal intrusion in a highway or navigable river, with or without obstruction. An encroachment upon a street or highway is a fixture, such as a wall or fence, which illegally intrudes into or invades the highway or encloses a portion of it, diminishing its width or area, but by government to regulate businesses.'' Palmdale's Chamber of Commerce is beginning to examine the proposed ordinance, but has not taken a stance on it yet. The Santa Clarita Valley The Santa Clarita Valley is the valley of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. It stretches through Los Angeles County and Ventura County. Its main population center is the city of Santa Clarita. The valley was part of the 48,612-acre (19,672. Chamber of Commerce has not taken up the issue. |
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