June 13, 2022
Long Beach City Council
411 W. Ocean Blvd
Long Beach, CA 90802
Re: Council File: 28. 22-0652 - Letter of Support
Dear Mayor Garcia and Members of the City Council:
We are writing to urge the city council to conduct a thorough economic analysis of the impact of the proposed health care worker minimum wage measure. Fully understanding the measure’s implications for health care workers, providers, and patients is critical.
We agree that our health care workers are heroes and have supported and rewarded them as such. However, this measure is deeply flawed, inequitable, and will hurt workers, patients, and our communities.
The measure would set new, arbitrary pay requirements for some health care workers in some health care facilities while excluding thousands of health care workers doing the same jobs in the City of Long Beach.
In fact, most health care workers in the City of Long Beach are excluded by the measure, creating a confusing, arbitrary, and inequitable system.
This measure could lead to workforce shortages at smaller clinics and public health care facilities, as well as significant cost increases, which would jeopardize access to quality care for Long Beach’s patients, particularly in disadvantaged and underserved communities. It would worsen inequities in our health care system.
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, health care providers of all sizes continue to face massive financial losses. According to a recent study, more than half of California’s hospitals are operating in the red.
We take great pride in providing competitive pay, strong benefits, and exceptional support for our employees. • Recognizing the strain of the pandemic on our teams, we provided additional COVID-related benefits, including meals, showers, additional scrubs, alternative housing, childcare grants, two weeks of additional paid sick leave, on-site counseling, and more.
• In late 2020, we chose to guarantee all eligible, represented employees a minimum of a 100% payout of their performance sharing bonus payment. We also provided special one-time bonuses for those employees who were not eligible for an annual bonus program.
For nearly 70 years, Kaiser Permanente has served the City of Long Beach and its residents. The 113 staff and 34 physicians at our Long Beach Medical Offices care for approximately 32,000 members each year. Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we remain committed to our mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve.
We urge you to order an economic analysis to better understand this measure’s implications for health care workers, providers, patients, and the City of Long Beach.
Sincerely,
Margie Harrier, RN
Senior Vice President and Area Manager
Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center