Poll: Voters Want to Keep 'Living Wage'

The L.A. Times' Joe Mathews reports: Los Angeles voters favor keeping a new law extending the $10.64 an hour "living wage" ordinance to LAX-area hotel workers by better than 3 to 1, according to a poll commissioned by a nonprofit group affiliated with labor unions. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez had intervened to support hotel workers who had fasted to protest the referendum.

    The law, which was supported by unions attempting to organize workers in that corridor, is the subject of a referendum effort by hotels and business groups. The city council must decide this week whether to put the referendum on the May ballot.
    The poll of 800 likely city voters, by Washington, D.C.-based pollster Diane Feldman, was conducted between Jan. 18 and Jan. 24. It shows that, if the referendum vote took place today, 74% of people surveyed would vote yes and retain the law, while 23% would be opposed.
    After testing arguments for and against the law, support dipped slightly to 69%. But the strongest argument against the measure was that it didn't go far enough, according to a memo from Feldman to leaders of Working Californians, the group that commissioned the poll. Of people surveyed, 65% surveyed said the law was unfair and should apply to workers across the city.
    See the memo at Working Californians.