LA County officials push for higher pay at Universal, Six Flags

I'm all for workers getting paid fair wages and being able to make ends meet working a full time job. However, governments setting arbitrary minimum wages, and then making those further dependent upon industry, are 2 steps too far. After all, the issues surrounding wages has very little to do with how much people are getting paid, but instead how much things cost and the recent rate of inflation. If officials in California spent as much energy on controlling the cost of living in the state as they do in managing wages, there probably wouldn't be quite as much of a disparity (though most politicians probably wouldn't be as enriched from their overinflated real estate holdings and sky-high rents they make from their low-income lessors). Ultimately though, government intervention (whether on the supply side or demand side) is nothing more than a self-serving, self-perpetuating process of manipulating markets to sustain continuously enlarging (and engorging) government excess.

I suspect this is as much a signal to industry to get to the negotiating table and work harder to get a deal as anything else.

I would also add Local 11 for the food department Team Members at Universal Hollywood because we are working with B192 to increase wages for all: Local 11 for food team members, Local B-192 for the rest of the park.

Thanks for that extra information.

I will be the first one to call out corporations that aren't treating people right, but that's BS that the government would just arbitrarily change the minimum wage just for specific industries they know can't be picked up and moved.

To Russel's point, bad planning and NIMBYs have ruined the state, and the only way to fix it is with good planning and to stop NIMBY. Forcing Disneyland to pay its 30,000 employees $30 an hour is not going to fix the affordable housing crises its just going to screw over people working service jobs and business owners in other industries.

EDIT: After rereading the article I realized this wouldn't apply to Disneyland. I stand by my point though if you're going to raise the minimum wage it should be raised for everyone not just certain industries you know can't move.

counterpoint: forcing corporations to pay their workers more money is good, actually

@Jacob - No argument there, but in economics, just as in physics, every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

I think something that's always lost in every minimum wage debate is that workers in the middle, which in most industries represent the majority of the American workforce, are the ones that get squeezed. When the minimum wage goes up, it's not a "rising tide lifts all boats" phenomenon. What typically ends up happening is that a company's overall pay structure begins to flatten where the wage differential between entry level workers and more experienced workers shrinks. This not only means that wages earned by those mid-level workers are worth less (inflation and decreased spending power compared to their less-experienced peers), but it means those entry level/minimum wage workers have less to aspire to as they gain experience. What may have been a $5/hour raise for a worker reaching 2-3 years of experience/tenure is now reduced to maybe $2/hours (or less) because of flatting wages.

This is why I strongly believe this is something that cannot simply be mandated through legislative edict. There are far too many moving parts for some rich, disconnected politicians in their ivory towers to fully understand the ramifications of these kinds of actions. In the short term, it definitely can have an impact and do some good, but actions like this do not address the core of the problems, and always have an air of corruption, particularly when they are discussed during the seemingly endless election/campaign cycle of American politics.

@Russell Meyer

We haven’t gotten a raise since the park reopened in 2021. We’ve been stuck with the same wages since 2020 before the park closed due to COVID. The only ones to get are raise were Team members who were making the minimum when the LA minimum wage went up.

Management loves to say that raising wages means raising prices but the price for everything in the park has gone up drastically while our wages don’t. Lard Lad donuts went from $5.50 in 2020 to $9.99 now. Super Nintendo World items have seen anywhere from $5 to $20 price increases.

@AgustinMacias - It's a real shame that you have not gotten a raise despite obvious increases in revenue to support wage increases. However, your account supports my point that these indiscriminate minimum wage increases enacted by legislation only serve those at the very bottom of the economic ladder, and actually hurt the majority of workers occupying the middle-class.

I'm not sure what the ultimate solution is to fix wage structure flattening, but there's no doubt that the recent effort to significantly increase minimum wages around the country is the main cause of the phenomenon. If legislatures continue to increase minimum wages, we'll eventually reach a point where all service workers are essentially making the same amount regardless of their experience, status, and/or performance.

@Russell Meyer

Exactly. I remember my old job at Walmart where once the minimum wage went up, the veterans at the job had their wage increase as well(ie. If my pay was $11 and the wage increased from $6.75 to $7.50, then I get a $0.75 raise just so there’s a gap from veterans to new hires). Hell, I remember when I got raises based on my job evaluations(The better I did, the higher raise I get.).

Now, none of that happens in any job. It’s constantly making the same amount as new hires and it sucks beyond belief.

The motion as offered by Supervisor Hahn while misguided, out-of-touch with reality and being pushed by Unite Here Local 11 will unfortunately include any and all hotels over 60 rooms. Think Marina Del Rey and other small pockets of the county not within an incorporated area.

I can't wait to hear what Los Angeles County 5th District Supervisor Barger has to say. Her district includes the majority of the hotels potentially impacted as well as Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor.

I am one hundred percent certain she will not vote in favor of this crazy braindead motion. As per the usual, she will be outvoted 4-1 by the other Supervisors beholden to the labor unions.

The big disaster will be to the hotels located in Stevenson Ranch, unincorporated Valencia, Castaic and all the way up to Lebec. As many TPI readers are aware, Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor are also located within unincorporated Valencia and not the City of Santa Clarita.

The real problem is the hotel in Valencia who competes with hotels literally across the freeway. Those hotels are within the City of Santa Clarita, and therefore not subject to this zany, anti-worker and anti-business motion of a minimum wage of $25.00 per hour.

Furthermore, as the current minimum wage in Santa Clarita is $15.50, and Hahn's motion guns it to $25.00 in the unincorporated areas, expect to see hotels immediately close throughout the unincorporated areas of Santa Clarita and convert to Airbnb/VRBO type rentals. All that's needed is a bare minimum of staff (use your app to check-in/check-out/report problems, etc.), and a non-union contracted cleaning service.

In addition, if this socialist, East German-modeled motion passes, I expect the Board of Directors of Six Flags to immediately close and shutter their entire Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor operation, and the land to be re-developed for the Five Point project that is currently being built and surrounds Magic Mountain from three sides.

By the way, what hotels does Unite Here Local 11, or for that matter any union represent in the northern area of Los Angeles County including Stevenson Ranch, Valencia and/or Santa Clarita? The answer is NONE. No union is on property at Magic Mountain either.

As far as Universal Studios and the Universal Sheraton, let their unions bargain for any increase - not forced down your throat legislation!

The lobbyists are going to be uber busy until the next Supervisors meeting in September. I wish all the lobbyists the best of luck at working not to have this out-of-control motion to appear on any future agenda.

SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT