SB 525: Law to raise minimum wage for health workers faces pushback

Supporters of a proposal to raise the minimum wage for California health workers point to Inglewood, where last fall voters approved a wage hike that primarily applied to staff at dialysis clinics and at the city’s only hospital. But the implementation of that local measure has been bumpy, signaling potential problems for the larger effort. 

Inglewood’s ordinance went into effect Jan.1, raising the minimum wage for those workers to $25 an hour. Then in March, Centinela Hospital Medical Center, a 362-bed acute care facility owned by Prime Health Care, laid off 48 workers and reduced hours for others, according to a complaint filed earlier this month by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West. The local union led Inglewood’s measure and its parent organization, SEIU California, is sponsoring the statewide bill.

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