Battle zone shifts in the fight over livable-wage laws

Most days started at 3:15 a.m., when he pulled a black jacket and captain's hat from his closet and headed for work as a skycap at San Francisco International Airport.


	Attorney Tom Larmore, pictured in front of one of the pier rides in Santa Monica, Calif., represents a group of business owners who are opposed to a living wage law passed by the city council. AP PHOTO Click for larger photo

Afternoon meant speeding home, showering and pulling on a blue jacket and pants for his job unloading baggage from planes. His "days off" began when he put on yet another uniform for a third job as a security guard.

In between jobs, Mulugeta says, "I took naps."

Now, Mulugeta has shelved one uniform and gained newfound time off. The reason: Airport officials mandated a so-called living wage for workers, boosting Mulugeta's skycap pay from $4.75 an hour to $10, plus tips, and adding health insurance.

The raise allowed the divorced father of three college students to quit his security job while keeping his annual income at about $44,000.

San Francisco is one of more than 60 U.S. cities and counties that have passed living-wage laws in recent years, trying to ensure that low-wage workers can keep their heads above the poverty line.

Most of those measures only apply to select groups of workers who have government contracts, but that may be about to change.

The battle lines in the living- wage campaign -- which have already spotlighted the work of parking lot attendants and hotel workers in St. Louis and janitors at Harvard University -- are shifting.

In cities such as Santa Monica, Calif., and New Orleans, advocates are pushing measures to raise wages for thousands of workers in private companies unrelated to government.

Opponents, who say living wages cost jobs or push out unskilled workers, are increasingly taking the fight to state capitols, asking legislators to keep cities from passing their own wage laws.

"It's definitely morphing," said Robert Pollin, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts who is one of the leading advocates of living-wage laws. "This is something out there taking various forms."

The movement, just like the concept, is decidedly amorphous. There is no fixed definition of what constitutes a living wage, and both advocates and opponents have difficulty distinguishing it from the better-known minimum wage, except that it equates to more money.

A living wage comes down to whatever local governments decide it should be -- from $6.75 an hour in Milwaukee to $12.25 an hour in Santa Monica, effective next summer.

The federally mandated minimum wage is now $5.15 an hour. The government says a family of two adults and two children needs $17,500 a year to stay out of poverty.

Critics call the laws feel-good measures that only drive up costs for businesses, leading them to cut jobs, or put the unskilled out of work.

Opponents also brand the measures as ploys by labor unions, who are among the biggest supporters.

So far, living wages have only been enacted on a very limited scale. But the measures may soon play out on a broader stage, and already many more people are being drawn into debate.

In Santa Monica, city council members this spring mandated higher pay for workers in hotels, restaurants and other businesses in a ritzy beachfront district popular with tourists. Business owners rail against the measure, saying it will double their labor costs.

The law is limited to establishments with $5 million or more in annual sales, so the owners of the P.F. Chang's and Ocean Avenue Seafood eateries say they'll cut back on business hours and workers to come in under the threshold. Sears intimated it might close its store in the district if forced to raise pay.

"It's such a dramatic increase that businesses that are labor intensive, they just can't possibly do it. They can't survive," said Tom Larmore, a lawyer and spokesman for Fighting Against Irresponsible Regulation, an alliance of businesses seeking to overturn the measure in a ballot referendum.

In Oregon, after five cities passed living-wage measures, the state's restaurant association lobbied state legislators to stem the tide. The result was a law, signed last month, restricting cities from mandating wages at privately owned businesses unless the company receives a tax credit or direct government subsidy.

A measure under consideration in Michigan, where seven cities have backed living-wage measures, would simply outlaw municipalities from setting their own pay scales.

"If an employer could pay you a higher wage, they would," said state Rep. Andrew Richner, the bill's sponsor. "It's a function of the market. The problem is if government gets in there and tells you what the wages should be."

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