Los Angeles Passes Minimum Wage Ordinance

Joining the tidal wave of California cities with recent minimum wage ordinances, like Emeryville and Mountain View (to name a few), Los Angeles recently voted to approve a minimum wage ordinance with a labor law poster requirement.

The Details of the Law

The new law, known as the Los Angeles Wage Enforcement Division Ordinance, has been a constant point of discussion for the city council for the last nine months. After a series of sticking points, the council ultimately voted 12-1 to make Los Angeles the largest city in the country with a minimum wage ordinance.

Although certain details of the ordinance are still up for discussion (like the creation of a separate minimum wage for disadvantaged workers), the first wage increase of $10.50 on July 1, 2016 has been established. The minimum wage will then increase annually until it reaches $15.00 in 2020.

Compliance Concerns

The new minimum wage ordinance does include a requirement that every employer must post labor law posters in a conspicuous location. These employment posters, when they become available next year, will be published annually by the Los Angeles Wage Enforcement Division. This notice will inform employers and employees of the current minimum wage rate and of additional rights under the law.

The most challenging element of the ordinance from a compliance perspective is that the law requires the labor law poster be posted in a minimum of 12 different languages. These languages include: English, Spanish, Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin), Hindi, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Armenian, Russian, Farsi and any other language spoken by at least 5% of the workforce of the workplace. Wow, those are a lot of languages! Previously, San Francisco had taken the cake with a requirement of 4 different mandatory languages, but the bar has been raised by Los Angeles’ employment poster  requirement.

Although the 12 language requirement may sound scary, Poster Compliance Center will do all of heavy lifting for you to ensure that you are compliant. The only difficult part might be finding the wall space to hang what will likely be a very large, albeit attractive, poster.

The Future

Although the ordinance does not take effect until next year, we at Poster Compliance Center will track any changes to the law very carefully so that our customers receive their new labor law posters in a timely manner.

While we track this recent city labor law change, you can stay on top of other required city posters by enrolling in Poster Compliance Center’s City 1-Year Plan that includes free automatic updates. For any questions about our products or services, please give us a call at 1-800-322-3636.