The first major exemption to Los Angeles’ newly-approved minimum wage law was approved Tuesday in a vote by the city council. Following Tuesday’s decision, nonprofit organizations that offer transitional work to disadvantaged job-seekers such as former inmates or homeless people will be relieved of the new rules for the first 18 months of their employment.
The council directed the city’s legal staff to carve out the exemption following impassioned pleas from employees of Homeboy Industries, Chrysalis, and other nonprofit groups. Without the exemption, their employers warned, the organizations would have no choice but to cut the number of people they hire.
The proposal was supported by business groups such as the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, as well as Service Employees International Union Local 721. It was opposed by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which previously called for an exemption of its own for firms with union workers.
Attorneys for the city will present the language of the exemption to the council later this year.
Read more about Tuesday’s vote here.
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