YMCA of San Diego County will be hiking its membership rates – a move it says is necessary because of the city’s decision to raise the minimum wage.
This month, all San Diego County YMCA members should be seeing a $1-$3 per month increase, depending on the type of membership they have, Courtney Pendleton, a spokeswoman for the organization, said in an email.
“As with many organization and businesses, changes to California minimum wage laws will impact our operating expenses throughout the YMCA of San Diego County,” she said. “Other factors such as new health care regulation, continued gas and electric rate hikes and rising water rates all increase our organization’s business costs as well.”
The price increase won’t affect the different services offered, such as gymnastics classes and other youth programs.
The YMCA of San Diego County employs 896 full-time workers and another 4,206 part-time employees, Pendleton said.
Many of the part-time employees who will be getting a raise work directly with kids in a variety of programs. Pendleton said some employees will receive a slightly higher raise than the minimum wage increase requires, based on market salary research in order to keep the company competitive with other businesses.
The YMCA, of course, is just one of a multitude of businesses impacted by the minimum wage increase. Other local business have asked customers cough up a bit more in order to break even.
City Attorney Mara Elliott said in January that she is investigating restaurants that add a surcharge to customers’ bills as a response to the minimum wage increase.
In June 2016, San Diego voters approved a staggered minimum wage increase – it rose to $10.50 an hour in July, and $11.50 an hour in January. The state, meanwhile, approved its own wage hike that will eventually lift the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2022.