Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price is seeking to raise the current minimum wage from $16 to $25 an hour for tourism and hospitality workers, with a gradual growth to $30 by 2030.
Los Angeles City Councilman Curren Price is proposing to raise the minimum wage for some workers to $25 an hour.
As FOX Los Angeles reports, the cost of living has outpaced wages as the city prepares to host different world events in the coming years. Hence, the councilman wants to increase the current minimum wage from $16 to $25 per hour.
This morning, I introduced a motion that would uplift over 36,000 tourism workers across the city by raising their hourly wage to $25 in 2023 with plans to increase their pay to $30 by 2028.
1/7— Curren D. Price, Jr. (@CurrenDPriceJr) April 12, 2023
This proposal would affect 36,000 tourism and hospitality workers across the city, seeking to make it a gradual increase toward $30 an hour by 2030, according to a Twitter thread written by Price on Wednesday.
“My proposal would benefit people employed in Los Angeles-area hotels with 60 rooms or more, and workers in certain occupations at LAX, such as janitors, aircraft cabin cleaners, airline catering workers and security officers,” Price detailed in his Twitter thread.
Price and SEIU United Service Workers West and Unite Here Local 11, the unions representing the workers, met Wednesday in front of City Hall to discuss the motion.
“Many of the workers who are the foundation of L.A.’s tourism economy, who work at Los Angeles hotels and LAX, struggle to survive on the city’s current living wage, face food and housing insecurity, or are forced to work two jobs,” Price said.
The proposal comes as Los Angeles prepares to host big-name events in the coming years, such as the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics, which are expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue.
“Tourism brings billions of dollars to our economy, and businesses that benefit from the work of tourism workers can afford to provide good jobs at fair wages,” Price tweeted. “The living wage movement is a social justice movement where here in Los Angeles nearly 9 out of 10 tourism workers are people of color.”
Lawmakers have previously noted that the cost of living in Southern California and inflation have made it difficult for workers, especially those with families, to support themselves as wages struggle to keep up.
The city’s minimum wage will increase to $16.78 on July 1.