The Los Angeles City Council gave final approval Wednesday to an ordinance that will raise the minimum wage for thousands of hotel workers in the city to $15.37 an hour.
Once the ordinance is signed by the mayor, hotels with 300 or more rooms will need to start paying the $15.37 minimum wage by July 1 and those with at least 150 rooms will have to comply by July 1, 2016.
Unionized hotels in many cases will be exempt from the wage hike, due to workers already agreeing to a bargained contract.
Hotels facing a financial hardship will be able to apply for a waiver from paying the $15.37 wage.
The council voted 11-2 to approve the hotel wage ordinance, with Mitch Englander and Bernard Parks dissenting.
City officials estimate 40 non-union hotels in the city have 150 or more rooms and will need to adopt the $15.37 minimum wage.
The hotel industry, which opposed the increase, contends the issue was rushed to a vote before economic studies on the wage increase could be properly reviewed.
Troy Flanagan of the American Hotel & Lodging Association said the national organization submitted public records requests today to obtain “communications between public officials, their staff and certain members of the labor community.”
The requests were made of 23 city offices, including those of City Council members, Mayor Eric Garcetti, the city attorney and some city staff, Flanagan said.
“We’re hoping to understand why this vote was rushed, why it targeted one particular industry, why the City Council and even the mayor did not seem to take into account the various economic analyses that suggested this would be very detrimental to hotel workers in the city of Los Angeles,” Flanagan said.
With the economic studies released “within days and hours” of the votes, “it certainly appears this was decided long before those votes were taken and the analysis was done,” he said.
Three economic studies commissioned by the city suggested that while the increase would benefit workers who received the $15.37 an hour wage, some hotel jobs could be eliminated.
Flanagan said the hotel association is also considering “all avenues, including litigation.”
Michael Czarcinski, chairman of the Hotel Association of Los Angeles, said the local trade group is also considering a challenge to the ordinance.
“Our attorney says there are legal grounds, but we just want to make sure we are moving forward in a fair and prudent way,” said Czarcinski, who also manages the Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles.
Hotel workers and members of labor groups contend the wage hike will improve the quality of life for low-paid hotel workers struggling to make ends meet. Business groups countered, however, that it will cause job losses, reduce hotel services and discourage hotel development in the city.
— City News Service