Los Angeles Releases Required City Minimum Wage Poster

After the L.A. City Council approved the final ordinance in 2015 (Ordinance 183612) that established a citywide minimum wage, the City developed a scheduled series of increases that would lead to a $15.00 per hour minimum wage in 2020 for employers with 26 or more workers. Employers with 25 or fewer workers would begin paying the $15.00 per hour rate in 2021.

Beginning in 2022, the rate would be indexed, meaning it will be adjusted to the cost of living as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Since passage of the Los Angeles Citywide Minimum Wage, the County of Los Angeles adopted a minimum wage program with the same wage schedule. The County’s version applies to all unincorporated areas of the county and takes effect July 1, 2016.

Los Angeles Minimum Wage Schedule

* Beginning July 1, 2022, the rate will be adjusted to changes (if any) in the consumer price index.

Los Angeles Citywide Minimum Wage Posting and Notice Requirements

The Los Angeles Wage Enforce Ordinance established the notice and posting requirements (Ordinance 183613). Subscribers to GovDocs Labor Law News will not be surprised to learn the City requires every employer to display the new posting “in a conspicuous place”.

Your Los Angeles locations will need to display a new minimum wage poster each and every July 1 for the foreseeable future.

Where it gets interesting for employers? The non-English language requirements. Technically, employers need to display the posting in:

“…English, Spanish, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Hindi, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Armenian, Russian and Farsi, and any other language spoken by at least five percent of the Employees at the workplace or job site.”

Strictly speaking (and you’ll have to forgive me: I’m an English major) the ordinance is stating that all of those languages must be displayed and then any others are spoken by five percent of the workforce; however, the City released only in English and Spanish version.

Our Compliance and Research Department suspects the ordinance intended to require postings in languages other than English and Spanish only if five percent or more of the workforce speaks those languages.

Looks like one of those spirits of the law versus letter of the law kind of deals, but we’ll confirm that assumption with the City and get back to you.

UPDATE (4/21/2016): The GovDocs Compliance and Research Department confirmed with the L.A. Office of Wage Standards that employers must display the posting in English and Spanish at the minimum, and then in “any other language spoken by at least five percent (5%) of the Employees at the workplace or job site”.

Additionally, employers are required to provide each new employee the Employer’s name, address, and telephone number in writing.

In terms of record-keeping: order some more accordion files. The ordinance calls for a four-year retention of payroll records.