The Board of Supervisors at their October 23, 2018 meeting unanimously passed
amendments to the Minimum Compensation Ordinance after a deal was
reached with the Mayor’s office. The measure goes to the Board of
Supervisors today for a second vote and then the Mayor has 10 days to
sign it into law, which she has pledged to do.
The minimum rate for non-profit workers and CalWORKs participants
increases to $16.50 per hour on July 1, 2019, and then every July 1
afterwards it will have a cost-of-living adjustment to keep up with
inflation. The minimum rate for workers at for-profit businesses and the
airport was previously increased to $17 per hour, and goes into effect
on November 11 (the Chronicle incorrectly reported that it is on Nov.
3), and will have a cost-of-living adjustment on July 1, 2019. At that
point, the non-profit rate will be more than $1 per hour behind the
for-profit rate. We will continue to fight to bring the non-profit rate
up to the same level as the for-profit rate so that non-profit workers
and CalWORKs participants are not relegated to second-class status.
For IHSS home care workers, the wage progression is –
February 1, 2019 – $16 per hour
July 1, 2019 – $16.50
July 1, 2020 – $17.50
July 1, 2021 – $18
July 1, 2022 – $18.75
with cost-of-living adjustments every July 1 afterwards
The section providing an hourly cash equivalent for paid time off when a
contractor is not able to provide actual days off still remains in the
ordinance. That should provide more than 50 cents an hour in additional
pay to IHSS home care workers because they do not get days off.
New language in the amendments makes the increases to the minimum rates
contingent on the Mayor or the Board of Supervisors putting in
sufficient funding during the budget process and the Controller
certifying whether the funding is sufficient for the whole raise or just
a partial raise. Another section has the Controller convening a Working
Group to advise the Supervisors and the Mayor on issues would result
from an increase in the wage rate for non-profit workers. The Working
Group would deliver a report to the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor
by April 1, 2019, a couple of months before the Mayor releases her
budget. We are committed to being engaged and fighting in the budget
process to both making sure that the full wage raises happen and that
there is sufficient funding to non-profits for the full wage raise.
The wage raises are meant to retain and attract workers to avert a
pending crisis of the implosion of the social infrastructure of San
Francisco. There are more than 20,000 home health care aides in San
Francisco providing services to more than 22,000 elderly and disabled
San Franciscans. Currently, 28 percent of the population of San
Francisco is over 55. By 2030, this population is expected to grow 69
percent from the level in 2010. About half of the seniors in the City
are 300 percent or below the federal poverty line of $35,000 per year.
Around 60 percent are people of color and 52 percent speak a primary
language other than English. The home health care aides are 42 percent
Chinese, 24 percent white, 14 percent African American, 9 percent Latino
and 11 percent other category. Around 88 percent are women. Home health
care aides allow seniors to remain in their own homes and not be
institutionalized. Presently there are only 29 residential care beds for
every 1,000 seniors. This is expected to decrease by 20 percent.
There are more than 2,000 non-profit workers who are performing public
services under City contract and making the minimum wage of $15 per
hour. These include desk clerks and janitorial staff at supportive
housing, and staff at homeless shelters, after school and summer
programs for youth, senior programming, homeless support, violence
prevention and mental health services.
There is a mass exodus of workers from these minimum wage positions
because they are either struggling to not be displaced from San
Francisco or have been forced out to Antioch or Pittsburg, or even
farther environs like Tracy, Modesto and Stockton. As the minimum wage
rises in the rest of California, they are at the point that it is not
longer worth the hours of commute to work at the San Francisco minimum
wage. Some non-profits are seeing a staff turnover as high as 40
percent.
The amendments originally were introduced in March, 2017. They came
under withering attack by non-profit directors at the larger city-funded
non-profit agencies. This was primarily because, while there is a
provision in the ordinance that a non-profit can get a hardship waiver
from increasing wages, this is only available if the highest-paid
employee is not making more than six times what the lowest-paid employee
is making, which is $187,200 annually with employees at the current
minimum wage.
The non-profit directors who came out against the MCO amendments
included:
Gail Gilman, executive director of Community Housing Partnership, whose
reported compensation on a 2015 IRS 990 was $188,464.
Steve Fields, executive director of Progress Foundation, whose 2015 IRS
990 reported $219,146.
Sherilyn Adams, executive director of Larkin Street Community Services,
whose 2017 IRS 990 reported $219,142
Tramecia Garner, associate director for housing and residential programs
with Swords to Plowshares, whose executive director Michael Blecker had
a reported compensation in 2016 of $197,720
Richard Heasley, executive director of Conard House, whose 2016 IRS 990
reported $170,184
However, the opposition wilted away in the face of an outpouring of
public support for the amendments. Residents around the City called and
emailed their supervisors and the mayor’s office. More than 1000 signed
petition cards and 350 signed an online petition. A low-wage worker
speak-out on the steps of City Hall under the Mayor’s window pushed her
to a last minute agreement to support the amendments, with the changes
in wage increases mentioned earlier in this report and the language
about raises being contingent on the budget process. More than 200 IHSS
home care workers, non-profit workers, CalWORKs participants, and their
supporters, particularly members of SEIU Locals 2015 and 1021, packed
the Supervisors chambers during their meeting and scores gave testimony
during public comment. The non-profit executives stayed out in the
hallway and did not come in to speak during public comment. They sent in
the staff person for the Human Services Network as the sole speaker
against the amendments.
The sheroes and heroes of this campaign are workers such as…
Nyuawanda Davis, a desk clerk at Community Housing Partnership, who
spoke out at actions at City Hall, in public comment at the Board of
Supervisors meeting, in delegations to Supervisors offices, and in a
video clip that received 286 views. Her video interview was so powerful
and moving in its appeal to the Mayor and Board of Supervisors that
Facebook blocked it from wider distribution as a paid ad with the
ominous statement that the imagery was “related to politics or issues of
national importance.” Mark Zuckerburg undoubtedly was worried that his
name would be stripped off of General Hospital.
“I am working every single day of the week. I don’t have a day off. My
quality of life is so low because I am making $15 per hour. With the
$15, I have to make decisions like what doctors do I want to go to. If I
have something that is ailing me, what priority is it. It is based on my
money if I can afford to take this day off to go to the doctor and see
what is going on with me. The service we are providing to the City is
important. We are working with a population [formerly homeless
residents] that is bringing a lot of attention to San Francisco. So if
we are doing this job for you, you should compensate us accordingly. We
are important too. I was born and raised in San Francisco and should not
be pushed out because of what I am making an hour,” said Ms. Daniels in
her video.
Others who did video interviews for social media include Hattie
Patterson, a desk clerk at Tenderloin Housing Clinic and member of SEIU
Local 1021; Claudia Arevalo, home care worker and member of SEIU Local
2015; and Anita Lau, an IHSS home care worker and member of SEIU Local
2015.
“I live in San Francisco. I have been working as an IHSS homecare worker
for more than 10 years,” Ms. Lau said. “My client has a stroke who needs
extensive care every day. We need a living wage because homecare workers
have to pay for the caring tools such as gloves and wipes to do our
jobs. We actually take home less that what we are paid. We have to
spread out our homecare hours for the day, from breakfast to lunch to
dinner, and while our approved hours are less than a full time job, it
is impossible for homecare workers to take a second job. The older the
homecare worker gets, the more demanding are the clients’ needs, the
minimum wage is not going to be attractive to a new worker looking for
work. That’s why we need to increase the living wage [name used for the
Minimum Compensation Ordinance].”
IHSS home care workers such as Daisy McArthur, Bradley Wiedmaier, Stacy
Curtis, and Maria Esther Ventura; non-profit workers such as Teresa
Rondone, Nancy Esteva, and Anakh Sul Rama; and CalWORKs participants
such as Danisha Floyd and Kendra Smallwood spoke out at rallies,
Supervisor hearings, in presentations from the pulpit at church
services, and in delegations to Supervisors offices, and there were many
others who participated in this campaign.
On a final note, the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition has been in a
cycle of deficit spending in the last few months in the final push of
the campaign to pass these amendments. We have outstanding bills that
need to be paid at the end of this month. Please take a moment to make a
donation at http://www.livingwage-sf.org/donate/
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2018