By JOSE HERRERA
A Los Angeles City Council committee has advanced a proposal to increase wages and improve health benefits for thousands of tourism workers at airports and hotels.
Following three hours of public comment Wednesday, the five-member Economic, Community Development and Jobs Committee voted unanimously to advance the proposal to the full council.
The move came as tourism workers are calling for higher wages as the city prepares for major sporting events in the coming years, meanwhile hoteliers are concerned it may lead to their businesses shutting down.
“We’ve made an important step. It’s not the only step, but an important step,” Councilman Curren Price, chair of the committee, said.
If approved by the City Council, the City Attorney’s Office would be instructed to amend two laws regulating wages for airport and hotel workers, known as the Living Wage and Hotel Worker Minimum Wage ordinances.
The Living Wage Ordinance applies to city contractors and ensures that employees are paid a set living wage, setting a cash wage rate and health-related benefits.
The Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance requires hotel employers with 60 or more guest rooms to pay their employees a minimum wage and provide 96 compensated hours of off time, and at least 80 additional hours of uncompensated time off per year.
Under the proposal, the minimum wage would rise to $25 per hour by 2025, eventually increasing to $30 per hour by 2028. Additionally, employers would be required to provide a health care benefit payment of $7.51 per hour and $8.35 for airport and hotel workers, respectively.
The minimum wage for airport workers is $18.78 per hour and $19.73 for hotel workers. Airport workers earn a health care payment of $5.95 per hour, while hotel workers do not, according to a report from Sharon Tso, chief legislative analyst.
While the committee ultimately approved the proposal, Councilwoman Imelda Padilla raised concerns about the health care component and called for a separate vote on that specific issue, which passed 4-1.
Additionally, the proposal calls for a Public Housekeeping Training requirement, mandating that hotel owners inform their employees of their rights, similar to laws in Santa Monica and West Hollywood.
Council members emphasized that details of the proposal may be subject to change as it moves forward such as potential carve outs for hotel owners with less than 50 rooms, and how trainings may be conducted, among other areas.
In September, a report released by Tso in partnership with Berkeley Economic Advising and Research studied the proposed wage increase and impacts to the local economy. The report concluded the policy change would “significantly improve equity of both compensation and benefits for workers in the targeted sectors.”
Since then, airport and hotel workers have rallied at City Hall to urge council members to approve the wage increase. Labor advocates and workers represented by unions such as SEIU-USWW and UNITE HERE Local 11 maintained their presence during Wednesday’s committee meeting.
Maria Romero, a single mother of a 7-year-old girl, was one of those workers. Romero cried as she pleaded to the committee to pass the proposal, saying she and her colleagues at Los Angeles International Airport deserve respect and better working conditions.
Other workers expressed that the increase in wages would allow them to cover basic costs such as rent, food, and an opportunity to save for the future or handle an emergency.
On the other hand, hoteliers claimed the study used flawed data, and expressed worry about the negative impact to their businesses.
“From an operational standpoint, we are still dealing with the impact of the Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance,” said George Unself, general manager of the Hotel Per La in downtown Los Angeles.
“As a result, we have had to cut back on services, hours and positions as we are not able to meet our mortgage payments nor are we able to set aside reserves for maintaining the asset,” Unself added. “We are at risk of having to close our doors, affecting over 100 jobs.”
Kara Bartelt, general manager of The Hoxton, a boutique hotel in downtown Los Angeles, said: “Hotels are in support of fair wages for all, but we cannot focus on one interest group to the detriment of others and to the detriment of jobs.”
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Other critics said the proposal would discourage the construction of hotels, and exacerbate existing challenges faced by the city’s tourism industry.
“My group is evaluating the economic sensibility of land acquisitions to build elsewhere compared to continuing to invest more in Los Angeles, where the hospitality industry is the target of wage and workplace requirements that no other industry is subject to,” said Mark Davis, CEO of Sun Hill Properties, who is seeking to build an 18-story addition to the Hilton in Universal City.
“If we pull our new hotel development, if will be real sad loss for Los Angeles in construction jobs, permanent jobs, sales and transient occupancy taxes,” he added.