The Brief

Nearly a half-million health workers who stand to benefit from California’s nation-leading $25 minimum wage law could be in for a rude awakening if hospitals and other health care providers follow through on potential cuts to hours and benefits.

A medical industry challenge to a new minimum wage ordinance in one Southern California city suggests layoffs and reductions in hours and benefits, including cuts to premium pay and vacation time, could be one result of a state law set to begin phasing in in June. However, some experts are skeptical of that possibility.

The California Hospital Association brought a partly successful legal challenge to Inglewood’s $25 minimum wage ordinance, which barred employers from taking those sorts of steps to offset their higher costs.

“Layoffs, reductions in premium pay rates, reductions in non-wage benefits, reductions in hours, and increased charges are consequences of an employer having less money to spend—which will necessarily be the case given the significant increase in spending on wages due to the minimum wage,” the association said in its lawsuit. Additional examples include reducing health coverage and charging for parking or work-related equipment.

Inglewood voters approved the ordinance in November 2022, nearly a year before California legislators enacted a $25 minimum wage for health workers. Those statewide higher wages are to be phased in starting in June under California’s first-in-the-nation law, but Gov. Gavin Newsom has since said they are too expensive as the state faces a deficit estimated between $38 billion and $73 billion. It’s unclear if lawmakers will agree to a delay or take other steps to reduce the cost.

U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer agreed with the hospital industry in a March 11 tentative ruling when he shot down the portion of Inglewood’s ordinance banning layoffs and clawbacks by employers, while allowing the rest of the ordinance to remain in effect. He gave the sides time to object to his preliminary decision, though none did.

The California Hospital Association represents more than 400 hospitals and was a key backer of the state’s carefully crafted compromise law, which notably contains none of the employee safeguards included in the Inglewood ordinance.

Spokesperson Jan Emerson-Shea said the association doesn’t know how providers will react once the state law takes effect. “We don’t have any insights,” she said.

“The challenge for any health care organization is figuring out how to pay for the higher wages,” said Joanne Spetz, director of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California-San Francisco. “Since labor costs are the largest part of any health care organization’s costs, it’s hard to figure out how to reduce spending without looking at labor costs.”

Providers can try to increase revenues by bargaining for higher reimbursements from commercial insurers, she said. Public hospitals, nursing homes, and community clinics get most of their money through Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.

Providers could reduce the services they offer, pare back charity care, and cut or delay capital investments, Spetz said. In the long term, she expects some combination of spending cuts and revenue increases.

Both the state law and local ordinance cover far more than doctors and nurses, with a definition of health worker that includes janitors, housekeepers, groundskeepers, security guards, food service workers, laundry workers, and clerical staff.

The most recent estimate by the Health Care Program at the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center is that as many as 426,000 health workers would make an average of $6,400 extra in the law’s first year, a 19% average pay bump mainly benefiting lower-income workers of color and women. State finance officials project that well over 500,000 workers will benefit.

Researchers didn’t include layoffs and other potential staffing and benefit reductions when they projected the state law’s costs and benefits, said Laurel Lucia, the program’s director. But she pointed to initial projections by hospitals, doctors, and business and taxpayer groups that the wage hike would cost $8 billion annually, thereby imperiling services and resulting in higher premiums and higher costs for state and local governments.

“It seems like a contradiction to say this law’s going to cost billions of dollars while at the same time saying it’s going to reduce workers’ total compensation,” said Lucia, who projects a far lower price tag.

She added that state finance officials had anticipated that Medi-Cal reimbursements would reflect the increased labor costs, while Medicare would eventually at least partially compensate for the higher labor costs.

Michael Reich, chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, and affiliated economist Justin Wiltshire recently argued that California’s new $20 minimum wage law for fast-food workers won’t result in mass layoffs and price increases, as some have predicted.

Health care is much different than fast food, Reich acknowledged, but he argued for much the same positive result.

“A higher minimum wage will make it easier and cheaper for hospitals to recruit and retain these workers. The cost savings, and the productivity benefits of more experienced workers, could offset much of the labor cost increase,” Reich said.

The hospital association filed its lawsuit against Inglewood’s ordinance in July, while it was still opposing early versions of the statewide minimum wage legislation. Among many other provisions, the statewide law put on hold an initiative to cap hospital executives’ salaries in Los Angeles.

The hospital association’s legal challenge referenced in part layoffs and reduced working hours imposed by Centinela Hospital Medical Center after Inglewood’s ordinance took effect.

But Centinela said the reduction was entirely unrelated to the ordinance and that all staff were offered alternate positions, which many accepted.

“Centinela Hospital also has since added many more jobs in new clinical positions above minimum wage scale,” the hospital said in a statement.

Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the prime backer of both the local ordinance and the statewide law, sued the hospital in April 2023 alleging that it cut workers’ hours to offset the higher minimum wage. The case is still pending.

The union did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In a court filing, however, the union and city of Inglewood said similar employer restrictions in previous minimum wage laws have survived.

The ordinance “merely sets the backdrop for collective bargaining negotiations,” and does not bar employers from locking out employees or hiring replacement workers during a strike. Employers can still lay off workers or reduce their hours, they said, so long as they don’t do so to fund the higher minimum wage.

But Fischer agreed with the hospital association that layoffs and reductions in employees’ total compensation packages are “obvious responses by an employer to rising compensation costs.”

Restricting employers’ options would violate federal labor relations rules, he said.

“The minimum wage an employer has to pay its employees will invariably affect the total amount of compensation it is able or willing to pay,” he wrote “This will then invariably affect the number of employees it can retain and the number of hours those employees will be scheduled to work.”

A warming trend kicks in for the region today that will raise temperatures 10 to 20 degrees above normal by next week.

Highs for L.A. and Orange County coasts will get up to around 70 degrees.

Valley communities will see highs mostly in the mid 60s to low 70s.

Inland Empire temperatures will range from 63 to 71 degrees. Coachella Valley temps will drop down to 61 degrees. In the Antelope Valley, we're looking at highs in the mid 50s.

Wind advisories

The San Gabriel, Santa Susana, Santa Monica mountains are under wind advisories until 3 p.m. Thursday.

We're looking at wind speeds from 35 to 45 mph, with some gusts up to 55 mph.

Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Santa Clarita Valley, Malibu and parts of Ventura County are also under a wind advisory until 3 p.m. Wind speeds there will range from 25 to 35 mph, with some gusts up to 45 mph.

Look out for fallen tree limbs. The recently rain-soaked ground could make it easier for entire trees to fall. Some power outages could also occur.

Beach hazards

You'll want to avoid swimming in the ocean because of strong rip currents and breaking waves from high surf. Minor flooding of beach parking lots is possible. These conditions will last until Friday morning for the Orange County coast, and until Saturday morning for L.A. County beaches.

Bryan Fuller probably is best known for creating television shows like Pushing Daisies and Hannibal — shows with devoted fans, many of whom still hope for series comebacks.

But when Fuller first came to Los Angeles to go to film school at USC in the 1990s, things didn’t go as planned.

After running out of financial aid, he had to drop out. But by staying in L.A. and taking odd jobs, like delivering head shots to casting directors at night, Fuller told LAist he still got an education in the industry.

Getting a foothold in L.A.

“There were a couple of times when I was delivering head shots that I would just see that they're in the middle of auditions, and I put my name down and I would go in and audition,” Fuller says. “Just because I was there and sort of fearless at that time and didn’t know what I should or should not do.”

That same fearlessness helped lead to his first writing job, for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. His unusual job-seeking tactic: “ I would pull up to the gate and say I was a delivery person and slide story ideas under the doors of Star Trek producers until they hired me.”

Fuller went on to work on Star Trek: Voyager, and in the early 2000s, he created his first original series, Dead Like Me, for Showtime.

As he got a foothold in the industry and went on to create other shows, as an openly gay writer and producer, Fuller took pride in infusing his stories with queer themes, something he would become known for (and touch on directly in an Achievement Award acceptance speech at Outfest in 2017).

Gateway horror, queer horror and the origins of ‘Dust Bunny’

In 2022, he executive produced a docuseries called Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror, and his latest project, the film Dust Bunny, which he wrote and marks his feature directorial debut, feels like a natural progression.

Part fairy tale, part thriller (or “gateway horror” as Fuller also describes it) the film is about a little girl who hires a hit man to kill the monster under her bed.

And while it might not seem like a queer story on its face, Fuller says it could be interpreted as one.

“Whenever I see a child championing themselves,” Fuller says, “that feels like a queer story. Because so many times, we as queer children have to become our own heroes and have to become our own champions.”

Sophie Sloane and Mads Mikkelsen in a scene from "Dust Bunny," written and directed by Bryan Fuller.

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Gabor Kotschy

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Courtesy Roadside Attractions

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But the story is also universal, which was by design.

Fuller explains: “There's a line in Dust Bunny where Aurora, played by Sophie Sloan [...] says, ‘My parents weren’t very nice to me,’ and that was designed to be a little unclear so the audience could see themselves in Aurora, whatever that means to them.”

Having a film or TV show that makes you feel seen, Fuller says, “I think is valuable not only for queer people, but for any child who feels that they may not belong or feels that they may not have a support system.”

The role of queer storytellers

Asked whether the Trump administration’s targeting of the LGBTQ community, particularly trans people, has changed his perspective on his role as a queer storyteller, Fuller was reflective.

“I think queer people have always encountered some kind of resistance that gives us friction," Fuller says. "And with that friction, there are sparks and growth, and that scar tissue is necessary to build an armor, particularly when we're looking at these stories through a fictional lens. They allow us to build upper resistance to real-life threats.”

Fuller says it also connects to his love of horror.

“It's one of the reasons I love horror movies and I love the thematic of 'the final girl,'" Fuller says. “Because I look at those movies as — if [Friday the 13th actresses] Amy Steele and Adrienne King can survive Crystal Lake, then I can survive my adversaries.”

To watch Bryan Fuller’s full interview with LAist host Julia Paskin, about "Dust Bunny," what he thinks it would take to keep more film and TV production here in Los Angeles and his ideas for a new ‘Star Trek’ movie, click here.

Today marks the final deadline for California counties to certify the results of the special election on Proposition 50, the ballot measure to redraw California’s congressional maps through 2030.

Statewide, turnout was 50%, with “yes” votes winning with 64.4%.

The Associated Press called the vote within minutes of polls closing Nov. 4, but the official vote count takes several weeks. The California Secretary of State now has until Dec. 12 to certify the full results.

Here’s what we know about turnout and the vote margin across Southern California.

Did the vote margin change?

Not really.

In many races, the vote margin narrows or widens as the count goes on, but Prop. 50 stayed remarkably consistent. The margin we saw on election night is pretty much what still stands. As of this morning, 64.4% of ballots counted voted “yes,” while 35.6% were “no.”

What was turnout like?

Voters notoriously do not show up for off-year elections in the same numbers as, say, a presidential election.

But given how consequential Prop. 50 was, there was a lot of curiosity about how many voters would actually participate. About 11.6 million people showed up for the special election — a turnout of 50% statewide.

It’s not as high as California’s last special election in 2021 on whether to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom — turnout then was 58.4%. But it’s a solid showing for California, especially for an off-year special election. In fact, it’s on par with California’s 2022 midterm elections, which saw 50.8% turnout.

Here’s the voter turnout breakdown among Southern California’s six counties — this is pending final certification from the state:

• Imperial County: 35.8%
• L.A. County: 44.9%
• Orange County: 52.3%
• Riverside County: 45.9%
• San Bernardino County: 44.2%
• Ventura County: 55.3%

Where did ‘yes’ and ‘no’ votes come from across SoCal?

“Yes” won the majority of the vote in all six Southern California counties — Imperial, L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura. The margin was the widest in L.A. County, where “yes” had 74.3% of the vote. The smallest was in Orange County, with “yes” votes at 55.5%.

If you’re curious to dig further into the details, here’s a breakdown of the vote by city in Orange County and a preliminary map of what the vote looked like across L.A. County neighborhoods.