LA reaches tentative agreement to pay city workers 24% raises over several years

A tentative agreement between the city of Los Angeles and thousands of its employees would result in pay raises totaling about 24% over the next several years if the deal is ratified, according to a coalition of unions that has been negotiating a new contract on behalf of its members.

The seven proposed pay raises, to be spread out between April 1, 2024, and July 1, 2028, would increase salaries each time by 2% to 4% for a range of city employees, from recreation and parks employees to sanitation workers, custodians, traffic control officers, Los Angeles World Airports workers, and others.

The five-year contract would also raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour starting April 21 of this year, with additional minimum wage increases in subsequent years until it reaches $25 per hour in June 2026, according to a summary of the tentative agreement that the Coalition of L.A. City Unions shared with its members.

Other highlights of the tentative agreement include:

• A pilot program allowing employees to receive 100% payout for unused sick leave, paid out annually or upon retirement.
• Make permanent what had been a paid parental leave pilot program, and to increase the paid time off to 12 weeks.
• More discussions about potential housing arrangements or remedies to housing-related issues, including: providing mortgage or rent-reduction benefits to employees living in the city or who spend more than than 30% of their disposable income on housing, and adding social or permanent supportive housing units on city-owned property with some units set aside for qualifying city employees.

City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo did not immediately respond to questions on Friday, Jan. 12, about the tentative agreement, including how much the proposed raises would cost and whether the city would need to raise taxes or make cuts elsewhere in its budget to afford the contract.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the cost of the proposed raises and changes in healthcare benefits would likely top $100 million during the first full fiscal year of the contract.

Asked if Mayor Karen Bass had concerns about the city’s ability to pay for the contract, especially in light of recent news about California’s budget deficit and how the state’s financial situation might negatively impact cities, a spokesperson for Bass said the city’s budget will be balanced and that measures will be taken to protect the city against “potential economic swings.”

Bass is expected to present her proposed budget for the next fiscal year in April.

“As the mayor previously said, the city has a quality workforce and we want to retain that workforce,” Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl said in a statement. “The city needs to work towards paying people who work for the city enough to afford to live in Los Angeles. Mayor Bass was the Speaker of the Assembly during the recession so she has experience with these types of issues.”

Seidl called the proposed contract “an investment in the future of the city’s workforce” that will help ensure that departments “can attract, retain and continue delivering critical services for Angelenos.”

David Green, president of Service Employees International Union 721, one of the groups in the Coalition of L.A. City Unions, called the tentative deal “the strongest contract” in the coalition’s history and one that “goes a long way toward recruiting and retaining the top talent we need to keep city services running at the level Angelenos expect.”

In November, City Controller Kenneth Mejia’s office announced that one in six jobs within the city of L.A. remained unfilled, leaving the city with a roughly 17% overall job vacancy rate.

Departments or divisions with high vacancy rates included the public works street lighting and street services divisions (32% and 26% vacancy rates, respectively), the economic and workforce development department (29% vacancy) and the recreation and parks department (23% vacancy).

A few weeks later, the city controller’s office reported that six in 10 city employees don’t live in L.A. In the same announcement, Mejia’s office touched on the need for more affordable housing.

The tentative agreement was reached in December, several months after thousands of city workers staged a one-day strike in August during what was dubbed a “hot labor summer.”

“SEIU 721 members are proud to serve our communities, and the landmark wage gains made in this tentative agreement are a testament to their grit and determination throughout the bargaining process,” Green said in his statement.

The Coalition of L.A. City Unions represents 24,000 workers. City employees covered by the tentative agreement are scheduled to begin voting next week on whether to ratify the contract. Their last contract expired on Dec. 30.