Living Hell

Hopeful workers also asked questions the study will try to answer. “It’s time enough that we make a decent wage,” said Brian Samuel, who works at a retirement hotel. “How do you deal with those of us who are afraid of our bosses?”

“What will happen to those who come to this country looking for a better life, a better future, who can’t live on a minimum wage?” asked John Hernandez, one of the workers let go by the Jonathan Club last week.

While Pollin declined to make predictions — “What we do is something beyond the intuitively obvious,” he said — business owners had a ready answer. “We’re going to be going for more-educated people who can speak English, do more things,” said Jack Srebnik, president of the California Restaurant Association’s Westside Chapter and owner of the 17th Street Cafe. “The people we are trying to help will be hurt.”

Rebel Harrison, who runs the Regional Occupational Program for the Santa Monica–Malibu Unified School District, worried that the proposal could eliminate jobs for students. “My heart and soul says, on the surface, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’” Harrison said. “My head says, ‘Slow down and look at the impact on youth and low-skilled workers who live in our community. Be careful what you wish for, for we may be pushing out employees, and it will be our people who will be pushed out.”

Supporters of the living wage tried to allay fears that jobs will be lost and businesses forced to shut down. They noted that the proposal could include a hardship clause for businesses that would be especially hard hit. “There’s a fear factor,” said former Rent Control Board chairman Jay Johnson, a member of SMART. “While at first glance it’s shocking, the point here is not to put anyone out of business.”

Pollin addressed worries that the study would reflect his support of the concept, saying he welcomed the scrutiny of “distinguished economists. There are a lot of first-rate economists who have different points of view,” Pollin said. “That’s another check that I’ve strongly advocated.”

But whatever the results of the study, any action the council takes may be moot if the ballot measure passes. In the end, the ultimate political battle will likely be waged at the ballot box, where the council also can take its case without petition signatures. The council has until early August to decide whether to place the ordinance on the November ballot. If two competing measures go before voters, the one that gets the most votes would go into effect. “Let the voters decide,” the Chamber’s Larmore said. “The ultimate power is in the voters.”

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