This measure would amend the Santa Monica Municipal Code by adding a minimum wage law.  Covered employers would be required to pay an initial rate of $10.50 per hour with health care benefits of a specified value or $12.25 per hour without health care benefits.  These rates would be adjusted annually.  The rates would apply to workers other than managers, supervisors and confidential employees who are not required to possess an occupational license. 

Four categories of employers would be covered by the law.  First, it would apply to the City of Santa Monica as to all City workers.  Second, it would apply to any City contractor or subcontractor working on a service contract as to employees working under that contract.  Third, it would apply to any private business operating at a location in designated portions of the coastal area and downtown and having gross receipts of over $5 million per year at that location for the past two years.  This gross receipts threshold would be adjusted annually.  Fourth, the requirement would also apply to certain other entities doing work for  businesses in category three, including contractors, subcontractors, lessees or sublessees performing part of the business activities of a category three employer.  Covered employees of category three and four employers would be those employees working at the site in the designated portion of the coastal and downtown area. 

The measure provides for an exemption based upon severe economic hardship.  An employer who contended that compliance would cause severe economic hardship could apply to the City Manager for a waiver applicable to all or part of the employer's workforce.  The general criteria for determining hardship are specified in the measure.  They include whether paying the minimum wage would render the employer's business nonviable, whether the business relies upon young people and other first-time workers employed on a seasonal basis and whether granting a waiver would otherwise advance the policies underlying the measure.  Specific criteria and procedures would need to be established in order to implement the hardship exemption. 

The measure also contains sections prohibiting circumvention of the minimum wage requirements, specifying that the requirements could be waived in a bona fide collective bargaining agreement,  and prohibiting retaliation against workers who assert their rights under the measure.  Additionally, the measure provides for criminal, civil and administrative remedies.  The administrative remedy provision would authorize an employee claiming rights under the measure to make a complaint to the City Manager, and require the Manager or Manager's designee  to investigate and make a determination.  If a violation was found, the City could issue orders to the employer.  A refusal to comply with such orders could result in revocation of the employer's business license.  Administrative determinations would be appealable to a hearing officer, and the hearing decision could be reviewed in court.