The City of Los Angeles recently approved a measure that would increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020. Some of the largest support for this move came from the city's labor leaders who wanted the sweeping rule to apply to all businesses, even though many business owners said they would be unable to comply with the increase in payout. Now, those same union leaders are pushing for an exemption for businesses who hire union laborers.

According to the Los Angeles Times, head of the Federation of Labor Rusty Hicks said companies that hire union labor should "have leeway" to negotiate a lower wage than designated by the $15 per hour law. In a statement quoted in the paper, Hicks said:

With a collective bargaining agreement, a business owner and the employees negotiate an agreement that works for them both. The agreement allows each party to prioritize what is important to them. This provision gives the parties the option, the freedom, to negotiate that agreement. And that is a good thing.

Senior vice president of public policy for the city's Chamber of Commerce Ruben Gonzalez noted the hypocrisy exhibited by such a request, especially in light of how hard union leaders pushed for the wage increase to begin with. "I'd refer everyone back to the statements of labor leaders over the past seven months that no one deserves a sub-minimum wage," he told the Times.

Gonzalez also accused union leaders of having an ulterior motive behind the exemptions in an effort to pressure businesses to consider unionizing their workforce in order to duck the mandate. "Once again, the soaring rhetoric of helping the working poor is just a cover for city government acting as a tool of organized labor," Gonzalez said.

Photo Nick Ut/AP