HEFTY WAGER: A $25 minimum wage for health care workers looked like a long shot just a few months ago. It’s a much different story now. Senate Bill 525, which would phase in the new minimum starting next year, now appears likely to make it through the Legislature as the once-fierce opposition has largely melted away thanks to a deal cut in the final days of session, as POLITICO first reported Friday. The legislation, backed by the influential SEIU California, could easily be described as one of the most contentious bills this year — and its passage one of the more significant wins for organized labor. What changed? For one thing, the hospital industry is in better financial shape than it was at the start of the year. Distressed hospitals have been awarded $300 million in interest-free forgivable loans and a piece of a multibillion-dollar Medicaid tax, defanging some of the industry's argument that failing facilities couldn’t afford a higher wage. The politics have changed, as well. Newly minted Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas came out in support of the bill just 12 days into his tenure. That sent a powerful signal to industry opponents of a minimum wage for medical assistants, custodians, food service workers and tens of thousands of other low-wage workers in health facilities around the state. The speaker’s support “forced entities to come to the table,†said Dennis Cuevas-Romero, vice president of government affairs for the California Primary Care Association. A coalition of major players in the healthcare industry negotiated changes, including lower wages in the initial stage for rural or financially struggling health care facilities. Dialysis clinics and certain other facilities also got concessions. The biggest lever may have come from the union’s promise to stop waging expensive ballot proposition campaigns. SEIU California has spent years going after its industry foes on the ballot — most notoriously, by pursuing a series of failed initiatives on dialysis regulation. The dialysis industry secured a four-year reprieve from proposition wars. Another provision says a statewide minimum would trump local measures to raise wages, the subject of many local ballot fights. The bill will be one of the final proposals the Legislature takes up this year. It is widely expected to clear both houses on Thursday evening. Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t said whether he’ll sign it. We’ll know soon if he saw the writing on the wall, too.
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