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These days, Homeboy staffers have been making their way up to City Hall's third floor, where council members have been debating a plan to hike the hourly minimum wage to $15 by 2020. That's because Homeboy executives fear the wage increase, which comes up for a full council vote Wednesday, will force them to scale back the number of people they employ.
Homeboy has spent months seeking relief from the law, but only for clients in its so-called transitional jobs training program. Without an exemption, the nonprofit will need to eliminate 60 of its 170 trainee positions by the time the wage reaches $15, said Jose Osuna, the group's director of employment services.
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Homeboy is only one group seeking the extra help. Chrysalis, which focuses heavily on helping the homeless re-enter the workforce, also wants an exemption. So does the L.A. Conservation Corps, which provides transitional jobs for young adults, particularly those who have struggled in school or had run-ins with the law.
Executives with the corps warn the $15 wage could force them to cut the number of transitional job participants by as much as half, from 400 people to 200. On Friday, workers with the corps told council members their employer had helped them reach critical milestones: earning a diploma, getting a driver's license, learning how to raise a family.
"They helped me be a better parent," said Estefany Mendez, 20, of Echo Park. "They are like my whole family."
At Homeboy, trainees progress from janitorial work to clerical duties to posts in the nonprofit's various businesses, such as the cafe, bakery or silk screening shop, Osuna said. Though they tackle those jobs, they also receive counseling in an array of areas: parenting, substance abuse, anger management, domestic violence.
Miguel Lugo, 36, said those services helped him adjust after years in prison.
"I never knew how hard society was going to be," said Lugo, fighting back tears as he addressed the council. "I never knew how to pay a bill. I never knew how to fill out a job application."
Mark Loranger, president and chief executive of Chrysalis, said he ran the numbers on the proposed wage hike and concluded the increases would add $2 million to its costs by 2018. He said he would not be able to raise enough extra money from donors or other sources to cover the entire expense.
"Any way you slice it, it's a very substantial financial hit," he added.
Chrysalis helped more than 500 clients, many of whom had been out of the workforce for years, find transitional jobs in 2014. The average age of a trainee is 42, Loranger said.
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For Cedillo, the exemption is about giving a second chance to some of the most challenging cases in society: the chronically homeless, former convicts and at-risk youth. "We're integrating people into the workforce, and we're making them better human beings," he said. "How do we put a cost on something like that?"