LA’s tourism wage increase proceeds despite opposition

The Los Angeles Tourism Worker Living Wage Ordinance, which will boost the minimum wage for tourism workers in the City of Los Angeles, is now officially in effect, after a coalition of hotels and airline corporations failed to collect enough signatures to overturn the ordinance. 

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder announced that of the 140,774 signatures submitted by the L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress, the coalition that had been challenging the ordinance for months, only 84,007 were deemed valid, less than the 92,998 needed to force a referendum.

Under the ordinance, also referred to as L.A.’s Olympic Wage ordinance, the minimum wage for airport and hotel workers will increase incrementally. It was set to rise to $22.50 an hour this past July, followed by annual increases of $2.50 each July, until it reaches $30 an hour by July 2028, just in time for the Olympic Games coming to L.A. that same year.

As previously reported by CALÓ News, the Los Angeles City Council passed the Tourism Worker Living Wage Ordinance in May 2024, but soon after, the group known as the L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress looked to persuade voters to repeal the ordinance, launching a petition drive to overturn the law and qualify the measure for the ballot in the upcoming elections.

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez was one of the many city leaders who applauded the coalition's failure to gain enough signatures. “This outcome sends a clear message to corporate interests in L.A. and across the country: working people can fight and win, no matter how much money or misinformation is used to stop us,” he said. 

The combined compensation of the chief executive officers of Delta, United, Hilton and Marriott, some of the companies behind the alliance, has surpassed $330 million since the ordinance was introduced, according to Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, the union that represents 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona. 

LAX workers, social justice groups, city leaders and labor unions, including Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW) and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), gathered outside of City Hall to celebrate the win and give testimony on what the minimum wage increase means for tourism workers, especially working-class people of color who would use this minimum wage increase to pay for rent, food and medical bills. 

Javon Houston, a member of SEIU-USWW and LAX workers, told the city council in public comment that many union members were tired of waiting for the ordinance, as it had been suspended and did not take effect while the signatures were being reviewed. 

“We are tired of waiting. The referendum failed; now it's time to pay up,” he said. “Please don't make us wait any longer. We waited over two-and-a-half years.”

The County Clerk stated that 2,339 of the 2,339 signatures gathered by the L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs, and Progress were discovered to be duplicates, and 17,082 were withdrawn by the signer, making about 40% of the signatures deemed insufficient.

“We can now announce that despite millions spent by companies like Delta, United, and the American Hotel and Lodging Association, a full signature count by the Los Angeles County Registrar found that the referendum campaign did not meet the qualifications to be placed on the ballot,” LAANE said in a statement. “This historic victory wouldn’t have been possible without the record of more than 120,000 Angelenos who submitted forms to revoke their signatures on the referendum petition when they learned the petition would actually upend the Olympic Wage.”