The City Council voted in favor of an economic impact study of a potential minimum wage ordinance at the council meeting on Monday evening. The vote passed 3-0, with Vice Mayor Yasmine-Imani McMorrin and Council Member Göran Eriksson abstaining. Mayor Albert Vera, and Council Members Dan O’Brien and Freddy Puza, voted in favor of the study.
McMorrin earlier tabled a motion to approve a minimum wage in line with the city of Los Angeles, but that failed with a 2-2 vote, with Eriksson abstaining. McMorrin and Puza voted in favor, while Vera and O’Brien voted against.
This debate has been raging for some time in Culver City and, in that time, the federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour. However the minimum wage in the state of California rose from $15 to $15.50, and the minimum wage in the city of L.A. rose from $16.04 to $16.78.
Eriksson has long stated that a minimum wage beyond the state’s is unnecessary because Culver is surrounded by Los Angeles, so the market will take care of it.
This vote means that the city will enter into a professional service agreement with Berkeley Economic Advising and Research (BEAR) in the amount of $145,000 to conduct the study.
A further amount of $37,000 to study the impact of a minimum wage ordinance specifically in line with Los Angeles failed with a 3-0 vote (two abstains). That vote needed a four-fifths majority to pass.
The council will now await the results of the economic impact study.
