The fight over an effort to boost wages for Los Angeles tourism workers to coincide with the 2028 Olympics has taken a fresh twist, with the City Council president introducing a new motion that critics say would significantly water down the measure. <\/p>\n
The issue ostensibly had been put to rest in September, when a business group-backed effort to repeal a<\/a> $30 per hour minimum wage for Los Angeles hotel and airport workers failed to secure enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.<\/p>\n But now, L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson has introduced a motion that, if approved, would phase the increase in over a longer period of time \u2014 delaying the full $30 hourly minimum wage until 2030.<\/p>\n Rhonda Mitchell, a spokesperson for Harris-Dawson, said the council president \u201ccontinues to work with partners around negotiations,\u201d but did not provide other details when asked for comment by The Times on Friday.<\/p>\n Hospitality and service employee unions sharply criticized the proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a shameful day in Los Angeles when our own elected leaders decide to put forth a motion to strip hard-earned wages from some of the city\u2019s lowest-paid workers,\u201d Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said in a statement Friday. \u201cThese workers fought for more than two years to improve their working conditions, only to have the very people who should defend them try to take it all away.\u201d<\/p>\n But Rosanna Maietta \u2014 president and chief executive of the American Hotel and Lodging Assn., which had supported repealing the wage increase \u2014 said relief from higher labor costs is much-needed in an industry that has struggled to bounce back from pandemic shutdowns<\/a>. The business group urges the council to \u201cswiftly adopt\u201d the new proposal, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHotels are essential to the vitality of Los Angeles, supporting tens of thousands of jobs and generating critical tax revenue that funds essential services like schools, sanitation, and public safety,\u201d Maietta said in a statement Friday. \u201cThis motion is a long-overdue step in the right direction and provides hotel owners and operators with short-term relief in the face of decreased travel demand and rising operational costs.\u201d<\/p>\n