Broward County

Fair Pay

Broward County to strengthen living wage ordinance

By Jonathan Del Marcus

County officials want to ensure that employees of companies receiving county contracts are paid “a living wage.”

In a special workshop at the Broward County Government Center in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday, county commissioners tackled a plan dating to 2006 to improve the county’s living wage ordinance and to make sure companies that benefit from its work contracts comply with its provisions. 

“I’m not interested in paying slave wages as an elected official,” Commissioner Ken Keechl said at the workshop. “Morally, we have to pay a living wage.”

Companies receiving Broward County contracts of $100,000 per year or more and employing workers in specified positions must comply with the county’s living wage ordinance, which went into effect on Oct. 1, 2003. Minimum pay rates codified in the law ensure that workers in such fields as food preparation, clerical work, landscaping and transportation are paid amounts considered necessary to “earn a living.” In 2008, the base hourly rate for companies contracting with Broward County is $11.07 per hour with health benefits or $12.51 per hour without health benefits.

“I came into this meeting somewhat concerned that there was going to be a lot more attempt to scuttle a lot of the provisions of the ordinance,” said Evan Evans, vice chair of the county’s Living Wage Advisory Board. “The issues that were discussed at this meeting and the suggestions that were made as far as additions or tightening of the wording of the ordinance, I thought, for the most part, [were] very good and would be very beneficial for the proper implementation of the ordinance.” 

The Living Wage Work Plan, an initiative that charged the county purchasing division in November 2007 with collecting data on the various factors involved in implementing the county’s living wage ordinance, has eight key components. County staff — including representatives of the Finance and Administrative Services departments, the County Attorney’s Office and the County Auditor’s Office — detailed the progress made in each area.

Staff recommended that the Broward County Commission: draft an amended living wage ordinance, redesign pricing sheets and analyze labor market wages, improve contract negotiations and cost containment, direct the county auditor to conduct living wage compliance reviews, conduct a socioeconomic survey of workers and service contracts, improve compliance reporting, utilize an automated system for data collection and storage, and have the Living Wage Advisory Board review all proposed changes.

According to County Auditor Evan Lukic, companies contracting with the county are paid a living wage above the U.S. Department of Labor rate for most jobs.

Commissioners discussed changing the composition of the advisory board’s membership to allow representatives of companies that have current county contracts to sit on the board. 

Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, however, raised concerns about conflict of interest. 

“Do you think a recipient would ever argue for a lower wage rate?” he asked.

Commissioners Keechl, Kristin Jacobs and Ilene Lieberman expressed support for the idea.

“Don’t you want someone on the board who is actively complying with the living wage?” County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman asked her commission colleagues. “You want informed decision makers.” 

“I tended to agree more with the general direction that Commissioner Jacobs was going in that the definition within the composition of the board is generally good and what we need to do is take that one subcategory of the business representatives and open it up a little bit so that we can actually have a representative from a contractor to the county,” Evans said. “I think what happened was in the original ordinance they were so concerned about conflict of interest that they kind of went overboard on tightening up the composition of the board too much.”

County staff will continue to work on details of the plan and will return to the commission soon with additional data and refinements.