In a deal with business leaders, the $30 minimum wage for LA hotel and airport workers will be delayed
A $30 minimum wage for hotel and airport workers will be delayed after Los Angeles elected officials lobbied a group of business leaders to drop a vote that would have destroyed the city’s budget.
On Tuesday, the City Council approved an 18-month delay, which would delay the wage increase until after the 2028 Olympics and block a business-backed plan to eliminate the receipts tax, the city’s second-largest source of revenue.
The minimum wage will rise to $25 in July and continue to rise to $30 in January 2030.
Because the vote was 11 to 4, the new salary plan will go to a second vote next week. Councilors Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado, Nithya Raman and Hugo Soto-MartÃnez voted “no”.
In May 2025, the council approved a proposal that would raise the minimum wage to $30 by July 2028 and raise an hourly wage for health care coverage.
In response, a coalition of airline and hotel businesses collected enough signatures to place the measure on the Nov. ballot. 3 taken from the city’s receipts tax, which is levied on a range of businesses, including entertainment companies, childcare providers, law firms, accountants, health care businesses, nightclubs and many others.
If approved by voters, the measure would take $740 million from the city’s general fund in the first year, according to city officials, and over five years it would lose $860 million a year on average.
City officials, hotel and airport businesses and labor unions have been in talks since last Wednesday, when the council narrowly approved delaying the wage increase to allow time to reach an agreement. The business association has agreed to withdraw the measure if the council approves the delay indefinitely.
In addition to delaying the $30 minimum wage, the council on Tuesday pushed back hourly health care pay to start at $8.15 an hour for airport workers in July 2027 and $4.25 for hotel workers on July 1 of this year.
The council also voted to establish a committee to study possible changes to the corporate tax structure.
“To put wages and benefits without bringing business to the table makes no sense,” said Nella McOsker, president and CEO of the city business group Central City Assn., at the council meeting. “It makes sense to ask us to cooperate so we can be on the other side of the table and negotiate, but it’s not fair to do so without that process.”
Kurt Petersen, president of Unite Here Local 11, which represents hotel workers, accused city officials of a “dishonest” commitment.
“Now they have a playbook. The next time the workers win something, they will threaten to blow up the city,” Petersen said of the business coalition. “Bad day for workers.”
Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson described the process as painful but coming to an end.
“I think we left the negotiating table, like many negotiating tables, where no one was happy with the outcome, but everyone left better than when we started,” he said.
Just before the council voted, Mayor Karen Bass released a statement saying she was called by both business and labor leaders to close the deal.
He called the proposed repeal of the gross receipts tax an “imminent threat to the city’s budget and the services we support,” including road maintenance, public safety and city cleanup efforts.
“This agreement ensures that workers are paid fairly and that businesses that create jobs can continue to serve LA and hire Angelenos,” said Bass.
On Tuesday, the council chamber was filled with union workers wearing red, purple and yellow shirts.
Laura Esquivel, a custodian at Los Angeles International Airport, expressed frustration that council members did not stick to their earlier commitments.
“We are sick and tired of being exploited. Some council members are there, now we know, they are not in agreement with the workers,” said Esquivel. “We are not giving up hope, we will continue to fight and we will be back here in 2028.”
Before voting against the delay, Soto-MartÃnez, a former organizer of Unite Here, called it sad and offensive.
“I cannot support anything that will deprive workers of money,” he said.
Councilor Imelda Padilla, who spoke in Spanish, criticized the manner in which the negotiations took place.
“If this thing about gross tax receipts passes, we don’t have a city,” said Padilla. “The businessmen put us aside.”
He said the workers deserved a pay rise, even though he voted for a delay.
“Next time, let’s discuss, let’s discuss well,” he said.
Times staff writer Suhauna Hussain contributed to this report.
