The City Council of Los Angeles voted on Wednesday to approve a radical package of minimum wage increases for workers in the tourism industry, despite the objections of business leaders who warned that the region already faces a deceleration.
The proposal, invoiced by labor leaders such as the highest minimum wage in the country, would require hotels with more than 60 rooms, as well as companies that do business at the Los Angeles International Airport, to pay their workers per hour by 2028.
That translates into a 48% increase in the minimum wage for hotel employees of about three years. Airport workers would see a 56%increase.
In addition to that, hotels and airport companies should provide $ 8.35 per hour for the medical care of their workers in July 2026.
The increased package was approved in a 12-3 vote, with the John Lee, Traci Park and Monica Rodríguez tips were opposed. Because the account was not unanimous, a second vote will be required next week.
Rodríguez, who represses the Northeast Valley of San Fernando, told his colleagues that the proposal would cause hotels and airport companies to reduce staff, the result of job losses. The same is happening in the City Council, with elected officials considering staff cuts to cover the cost of employee increases, he said.
“At this time we face 1,600 inmantled layoffs because income simply does not coincide with our expenses,” Rodríguez said. “The same will happen in the private sector.”
The council member Hugo Soto-Martínez, standing before a busy of unionized workers after the vote, celebrated his victory.
“It has been too long, but finally, today, this building is working for people, not for corporations,” said Soto-Martínez, a former hotel and restaurant organizer joins local 11.
Hotel owners, business groups and airport concession companies predicted that salary increases will give a new blow to an industry that never recovered completely from Covid pandemic. They pointed out the recent fall in tourism from Canada and elsewhere that followed the commercial war of President Trump and the hardening of the US border.
Adam Burke, president and executive director of the Tourism Board and Convention of Los Angeles, said Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the nations of the United Kingdom who send a large number of visitors to Los Angeles, have emissions from the United States.
“The perspective of 2025 is not encouraging,” Burke said.
Several hotels owners have warned that the highest salary will stimulate them to climb the operations of their restaurants. Some flatly declared that hotel companies would remain away from future investments in the city, which for a long time has served as a global tourist destination.
Jackie Filla, president and executive director of the Los Angeles Hotel Association, said she believes that hotels will close restaurants or other small businesses in their facilities, and in some cases, completely closed.
In the short term, he said, some will tear their “block block” agreements, which will reserve rooms for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“I don’t think anyone moves to do this,” said Filla. “The hotels are excited to be hosts of the guests. They are excited to participate in the Olympic Games. But they cannot get into it losing money.”
Jessica Durrum, Director of Policies of the Angels Alliance for a New Economy, a pro-indicalization defense group, said that business leaders also issued terrible warnings about the economy when the previous salary was approved only to be incorrect. Durrum, who is in charge of the ascending campaign of tourist workers in his group, told the Council that a higher salary would only benefit the region.
“People with more money in their pockets, they spend it,” he said.
Wednesday’s vote offered a great victory to unite local 11, a powerful political force in the City Council. The union is known for calling the doors for favorite candidates, spending six figures in some cases to be chosen.
Unite Here Local 11 had announced the proposal as an “Olympic salary”, one that would ensure that its members have enough money to keep up with inflation. The union, which works with airport workers represented by service employees, service workers of the West International Union, also said that corporations should not be the only ones that will benefit from the Olympic Games in 2028.
The workers of both unions testified about their struggles to pay the increase in household costs, including renting, food and fuel. Some asked for better medical care, while others talked about having to work multiple jobs to support their families.
“We need these salaries. Do the right thing,” said Jovan Houston, a customer service agent in Lax. “Do this for the workers. Do this for single families. Do this for parents like me.”
Sonia Ceron, 38, Airline dishwasher Catering Company Flying Food Group, said she has a second house cleaning work in Beverly Hills for approximately 32 hours a week. Zero lives in a small apartment in Inglewood, which has been difficult for his 12 -year -old daughter.
“My daughter, like every child, wants to have her own room, to be able to call her friends and have her privacy. At this time, that is impossible,” said Ciron.
The political leaders of the have promulgated a series of salary laws in recent decades. The minimum hotel wage, approved by the Council in 2014, is currently $ 20,32 per hour. The minimum wage for private sector employees in Lax is $ 25.23 per hour, once the health payment of $ 5.95 per hour required is included.
For almost everyone else in Los Angeles, the minimum hour per hour is $ 17.28, 78 cents higher than that of states.
