he concept of a living wage, while not a new one, is a relatively new form of local economic development policy. The following includes several VCLWC statements, documents, and articles covering local living wage ordinances and the concept of a living wage in general.

Ventura County Living Wage Ordinance Proposal Currently Before
the Ventura County Board of Supervisors

A coalition of local faith-based organizations, labor unions, and community organizations have come together as the Ventura County Living Wage Coalition (VCLWC) to propose to the County of Ventura the drafting and passage of a “Living Wage Ordinance.” The ordinance would be designed to raise the wages of very low-income workers by requiring businesses to pay their workers a “living wage,” if they receive contracts, subsidies and/or lease agreements with the county and its subsidiary or collateral agencies and districts.

The Living Wage Ordinance would set hourly wages at a minimum of $8.00 per hour with health benefits, or $10.00 per hour without health benefits. It provides compensated time off for illness, holidays and vacations. The lower wage produces an annual income barely above the poverty threshold for a family of four, as determined by the federal government.

County Contracts, Subsidies and/or Leases
The County of Ventura and its subsidiary or collateral agencies and districts each year award contracts to private firms to provide services to the public and to county government. The county also provides financial assistance and funding to private firms for the purpose of economic development or job growth. The county also lets leases and licenses to other entities, which perform services that effect the proprietary interests of county operations. These contracts, subsidies and/or leases may amount to millions of dollars each year of taxpayer resources.

The Social Cost of Low Wages
Even in these promising economic times, far too many county residents and their families live below or near the poverty line. A growing segment of these poor households have one or more members working full or part-time. These families increase the growing ranks of the county’s working poor. The following list of social indicators provides a glimpse that poverty among the working poor remains an important social problem in Ventura County:

· 23% of Ventura County households live below the Federal Poverty Level.
· Over 34,000 county residents receive emergency food assistance each month from Foodshare. Approximately 44% are members of families where at least one member is working full or part-time.
· During 1998, an estimated 66% of households in Ventura County could not afford the median priced home.
· While two full-time minimum wage workers ($5.75 per hour) spend 60% of their income on rent alone, median rent in Ventura County is $879 per month.
· Currently 8,590 families in the county receive cash assistance, the largest number live in and around the City of Oxnard.

Rationale for Passage of a Living Wage Ordinance
In recent years, cities and counties throughout the nation have passed living wage ordinances to address poverty among working families. These cities include Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Jose, West Hollywood, Pasadena, Oakland, New York, and the County of Los Angeles. The rationale for passage of a living wage ordinance includes the following:


Wages and Benefits
The payment of wages and benefits by those entities receiving public contracts, subsidies and/or leases is a vested interest of all public agencies. Inadequate compensation may foster high turnover, absenteeism, and lackluster performance, thereby effecting the quality of services rendered to the public. Adequate compensation helps eliminate these problems.


Health Insurance
Due to the lack of health insurance, low wage employees must depend on public healthcare providers. The taxpayer is then providing a further subsidy to contractors. Healthy employees perform better and are more productive.

Quality of Public Services
Public agencies hold a proprietary interest in the quality of work performed by employees of contractors and subcontractors. Public agencies have a genuine stake in the success of these enterprises and in the quality of the services rendered. Inadequate compensation of these employees may adversely effect the contractors’ and subcontractors’ performance and thereby the overall success of public projects and programs.

Labor Neutrality
All public agencies must ensure that funds be used for public benefit and not for other ancillary costs. It is therefore in the public interest to prevent the use of public agency funds by any recipients of contracts, subsidies or leases to influence workers, one way or another, on the question of unionization.

Benefits of a Living Wage Ordinance
A living wage ordinance would further assure that tax dollars are most effectively and efficiently used. Living wage jobs would increase consumer income, help to decrease the incidence of families below the poverty level, increase the tax base and potentially reduce demands on taxpayer-funded social programs.

Summary of a Ventura County Living Wage Ordinance
A Living Wage Ordinance would ensure that the County of Ventura and its subsidiary agencies and districts only grant contracts, subsidies, and leases to those businesses who pay their employees a wage that they can live on. A Living Wage Ordinance, as proposed by the Ventura County Living Wage Coalition (VCLWC), would cover recipients of county contracts, subsidies and leases of $25,000 or more. The ordinance would exempt most small businesses by covering only those companies that have five or more employees. The ordinance would exempt most non-profit service providers. Non-profit organizations whose highest paid staff receive no more than eight times the wages of the lowest paid staff would not be affected.

A living wage would be set at an hourly rate for those covered businesses receiving contracts, subsidies and/or leases. The VCLWC proposes this rate to be $8.00 per hour with health insurance benefits provided by the employer or $10.00 per hour without benefits. The VCLWC also seeks a number of days off per year, for example 12 with pay and 10 without pay.

The benefits set out in the proposed ordinance would be subject to an annual review and would be readjusted if necessary based upon a standard index, such as the consumer price index (CPI) for the region. An oversight committee composed of labor, business, and community organizations would be established to join county representatives in the implementation and monitoring of the ordinance.

Under the VCLWC proposal, the county would have the authority to enforce the ordinance and take legal action on behalf of an individual who seeks relief under the ordinance. An individual may also seek relief for violation of the ordinance in the courts. In both circumstances, back pay, restitution, attorneys’ fees and costs may be pursued.

Conclusion
Growth in the numbers of the working poor imposes heavy social costs on both working families and on the taxpayers. Ventura County government has a major stake in the general health and welfare of the people working and residing in this region. Faced with similar problems in their respective communities, the cities and other governmental entities in the county are expected to follow suit in the adoption of similar ordinances. The VCLWC therefore urges swift drafting and passage of a Living Wage Ordinance by the Board of Supervisors.