The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to approve a sweeping package of minimum wage increases for workers in the tourism industry, despite objections from business leaders who warned that the region is already facing a slowdown in international travel.
The proposal, billed by labor leaders as the highest minimum wage in the country, would require hotels with more than 60 rooms, as well as companies doing business at Los Angeles International Airport, to pay their workers $30 per hour by 2028.
Jessica Durrum, a policy director with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, a pro-union advocacy group, said business leaders also issued dire warnings about the economy when previous wage increases were approved — only to be proved wrong. Durrum, who is in charge of her group’s Tourism Workers Rising campaign, told the council that a higher wage would only benefit the region.
Counter-counter-counterpoint, people can’t go on vacations and stay in hotels when their wages are so low that a majority of the country is just one missed paycheck away from bankruptcy.
I made no argument about whether there should be a wage increase. I merely pointed out that there will be some impact and it will be across the whole tourism industry, not just hotels.
Thanks for the info in the other sub thread on labor costs. We’ll see what the prices do and how that impacts travel plans.
Part of the article mentions that visits are already down due to the economic climate, which is also a point you’re making.