LA’s tourism workers demand wage hikes ahead of 2028 Olympics

Workers seek minimum wage of $25 per hour immediately, with annual increases until pay hits $30 per hour in 2028.

The Olympic Games in Paris command worldwide attention, so hotel and airport workers in Los Angeles are hoping to capitalize on the global sporting events by renewing their pleas for city officials to raise their minimum wage before the 2028 Olympics in L.A.

The coalition Tourism Workers Rising – made up of labor unions, faith-based and community organizations and other groups – wants the L.A. City Council to raise the minimum wage for tourism workers in the city immediately to $25 per hour, with increases each year until the rate hits $30 per hour by the 2028 Olympics.

Currently, the minimum wage in L.A. of employees working in hotels with 60 rooms or more is $20.32 per hour. The minimum wage of airport employees is $19.28 per hour.

 

Advocates, who refer to the proposed wage hikes as an “Olympic wage,” say “essential” workers like those who work in hotels and airports, and who keep L.A.’s tourism economy running, should be paid livable wages so they can afford to live close to work.

They say the hotel and airline industries received tens of billions of dollars in government bailouts during the COVID-19 pandemic and “essential” workers who risked their health to keep facilities running throughout the pandemic deserve to be compensated fairly.

Estuardo Mazariegos, co-director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment’s L.A. office, said during a news conference outside L.A. City Hall on Tuesday, July 30, that more than 50 million people visited L.A. last year, resulting in 30 million nights of hotel bookings. About 75 million passengers came through LAX, he said.

“That’s a lot of rooms to clean, a lot of meals to prep, a lot of things to make sure that the guests here in Los Angeles have enjoyable stays, have the type of stay that puts a smile on their face and makes them come back over and over,” Mazariegos said. “Essentially the tourist workers are the front line, are the folks … that greet the world in Los Angeles. And we need to make sure that our people are able to smile as well.”

About 100 coalition members with Tourism Workers Rising attended the press conference.

In recent years, some cities in the greater L.A. area have considered paying tourism workers more.

L.A. City Councilmembers Curren Price and Katy Yaroslavsky introduced a motion in April 2023 calling for wage hikes for tourism workers in the City of Angels.

Price said during Tuesday’s press conference that tourism workers are struggling to pay their rent or to put food on the table while their employers will benefit financially over the next few years as L.A. hosts the World Cup in 2026 and the Summer Olympics in 2028.

“This is a social justice issue,” said Price, noting that nearly nine in 10 tourism workers in L.A. are people of color.

Yaroslavsky said she’s looking forward to showcasing Los Angeles to the world in four years when the Olympics comes to town.

“I can’t wait for L.A., the city I love, that we all love so much, to be on full display,” she said. “But we can’t do that if we know the workers who are going to be the backbone of the ‘28 Games aren’t being taken care of.”

The motion by Price and Yaroslavsky was introduced more than a year ago. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Price said an economic analysis report that had been requested of city staff is still being worked on and is expected to be available in about two weeks.

Supporters of the motion hope to see the item advance through the City Council approval process.

If the proposal is adopted, L.A. will be the first city in the U.S. with a $25 minimum wage mandate, Price said in April 2023. The proposal calls for improved health benefits. It would affect more than 36,000 workers, and would apply to hotels or motels with at least 60 rooms, and workers at airports operated by Los Angeles World Airports which runs LAX and Van Nuys Airport.

Thirteen neighborhood councils have submitted “community impact statements” expressing support for the proposed wage increases while one neighborhood council has opposed it.

Many of the neighborhood councils who wrote in support of the proposal said the boost in wages, health care and worker protections are focused on economic justice, housing justice and public safety.

“The tourism industry is rebounding beyond pre-pandemic levels and infrastructure investments are assuring future growth as Los Angeles prepares to host the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics,” the Pacoima Neighborhood Council wrote in its impact statement.

“Thousands of tourism workers and their families were among the hardest hit during the pandemic, yet many now lack quality health insurance,” the group stated.

The Studio City Neighborhood Council is against the proposal.

“Unfortunately, inflation is a vicious cycle driven by rising prices and rising wages in a which came first scenario … the chicken or the egg,” the Studio City council wrote. “Business profit and employee profit gains are mostly canceled out in the end.”

Organizations representing the hotel industry previously pushed back on the idea of another wage increase.

Last year, the California Hotel & Lodging Association, the Hotel Association of Los Angeles and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association issued a statement criticizing the proposal as a “short-sighted, industry-specific mandate for political gain.”

A representative for the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, a local business group, also opposed the proposal.

Whether tourism workers are paid enough has been an issue of interest, with similar campaigns to raise wages  launched in Long Beach, Santa Monica, Culver City and Anaheim. The efforts were mostly led by UNITE HERE Local 11, a union representing about 15,000 workers at 65 major hotels in L.A. and Orange counties.

In March, Long Beach voters approved a ballot measure to increase the minimum hourly wage of hotel workers in the coastal city from $17.55 to $23 this year, with annual increases of 6.45% until the minimum rate reaches $29.50 per hour by 2028. In Long Beach, the wage increase would only apply to hotels with at least 100 guest rooms, or hotel operators could opt out if they enter into separate contracts with the unions representing the workers.