Los Angeles City Council president proposes delaying across-the-board Olympic wage increase
The fight to raise wages for Los Angeles tourism workers in time for the 2028 Olympics has taken a new turn, with the city council president introducing a new motion that critics say would significantly weaken the measure.
The issue was ostensibly resolved in September, when an effort backed by business groups to repeal the $30-an-hour minimum wage for hotel and airport workers in Los Angeles failed to garner enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
But now Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson has introduced a motion that, if approved, would phase in the wage increase over a longer period of time — delaying the full $30 an hour minimum wage until 2030.
Harris-Dawson spokesperson Rhonda Mitchell said the committee chair “continues to work with partners on negotiations,” but did not provide other details when asked for comment by The Times on Friday.
The proposal was harshly criticized by the Hospitality and Service Employees Union.
“It’s a shameful day in Los Angeles when our own elected leaders decide to introduce a motion that would strip some of the city’s lowest-paid workers of their hard-earned wages,” Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said in a statement Friday. “These workers have fought for better working conditions for more than two years, only to have those who are supposed to protect them try to take it all away.”
But Rosanna Maietta, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, which has supported repealing the wage increases, said relief from rising labor costs is urgently needed for an industry that has been struggling to recover from pandemic shutdowns. She said the business group urged the council to “expeditiously pass” the new proposal.
“Hotels are critical to the vitality of Los Angeles, supporting tens of thousands of jobs and generating vital tax revenue that funds essential services like schools, health and public safety,” Meetta said in a statement Friday. “This motion is an overdue step in the right direction, providing short-term relief to hotel owners and operators in the face of declining travel demand and rising operating costs.”
The City Council initially voted in May to approve a series of annual wage increases for LAX hotel employees and workers after a two-year campaign by labor organizers.
The law was stalled during a subsequent opposition vote campaign but recently came into effect, with workers seeing the first in a series of wage increases aimed at raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2028.
Harris-Dawson’s new proposal would provide smaller annual wage increases, eventually raising workers’ wages to $30 two years later in 2030.
Harris-Dawson supported the original proposal and helped streamline it through a vote in Parliament. His spokesman did not elaborate on why he now supports changing the timetable.
However, the motion comes after a coalition of airline and hotel businesses filed papers for a ballot measure to repeal the city’s business tax, a move that would cut about $740 million annually from the city’s general fund, which is used to pay for police, firefighters and other services.
The corporate-backed referendum has been approved for signatures and has the support of multiple airlines and the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
David Huerta, president of SEIU-United Service Workers West, which represents airport workers, said the timing of the motion during the holidays was “particularly callous.”
“We stand ready to defend Olympic wages,” he said in a statement.
The proposal is now before two committees, one responsible for economic development and the other focused on tourism.
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
