LA City Council approves minimum wage raise for airport and hotel workers

CBS News

24-05-2025

Airport and hotel union workers have been demanding big raises scored a major victory on Friday after the Los Angeles City Council approved a massive raise.
The new ordinance will increase the minimum wage for airport and hotel workers, previously $20 an hour, by 56% over the next three years. By the time the Olympics arrive in Southern California, they will be earning $30 an hour.
Union workers pleaded their case for the higher wage ordinance during the debate at City Hall last week.
"People understand the concept that when people have more money in their pockets, they spend it," one worker said.
The new minimum wage will apply to hotels with more than 60 rooms, private companies at LAX, airlines and concessions. Several council members and the LA Tourism and Convention Board opposed the ordinance. The board warned that an Oxford University study shows that the wage increase would devastate an already fragile business, hit hard by the wildfires and national politics.
"A $30 an hour wage would result, on an annual basis, in the loss of $2.3 billion in local business sales, $55 million in local tax revenues and most unfortunately, the loss of 15,000 jobs," tourism board CEO Adam Burke said.
Council members rejected several attempted changes to the ordinance, making it clear that the higher wages are intended to send a message.
"When we talk about who talks about who deserves a living wage, it's anybody in the boundaries of that workplace, within the hotel," Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez said.
The chief executive of the company that runs the Hilton in Universal City told the LA Times that the wage hikes are going to scare investors away and potentially kill a $250 million expansion project at his property.