L.A. to Raise Minimum Wage for Major Hotel Workers
To more than $15 an hour
The city council here has approved one of the nation's highest minimum wages for workers at the city's large hotels.
In a 12-3 vote on Wednesday, council members approved an ordinance establishing a minimum hourly wage of $15.37 for workers at Los Angeles hotels containing at least 125 guest rooms. If passed in a final vote next week, the ordinance would go into effect for hotels with more than 300 rooms next July. Those with at least 125 but fewer than 300 would be required to comply by July 2016.
Lifting the pay floor for Los Angeles hotel workers is the latest in an unfolding national trend. Last year the city SeaTac, Wash., set a $15 floor for workers tied to the major airport there. Nearby Seattle followed this summer, approving a $15 an hour minimum wage for all workers that will be rolled out over several years. San Francisco voters will consider a $15 rate this November.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Uh why? So my room will be more expensive?
Now wait for the lawsuits when a 126 room hotel converts two of them into supply closets or offices.
Lobby Clerk: "Welcome to Holiday Inn Express 1, I'm sorry we are out of rooms, but we'll be happy to book you at our sister hotel, the Holiday Inn Express 2?"
Guest: "Ok, how do I get to Holiday Inn Express 2?"
Lobby Clerk: "Enter the elevator and press the number 2 button. It will take you right up to Express 2. Can I book that room for you?"
Guest: "Umm, yeah sure."
Why just large hotel workers? What makes that job so much more difficult? My guess: there's some lobbying/cronyism with some powerful hotel-workers union or something equally california-esque and stupid.
$15/hr to work in a HOTEL?? WTF. the wage isn't even tied to a specific job role in the hotel. Just EVERYONE - from bellhop to clerk to manager - deserves $15/hr ...
Easy, the City Council assumes the costs will be born mostly by out of town guests, and large corporations are just plain evil. Two birds, one stone or something....
I've recently felt stigmatized because I didn't leave a few dollars each day for cheap hotel maids, even though I leave a small footprint everywhere I go, turn down service half the time, and leave a couple beers or something behind. If I'd tipped $5 a day that time around, I would have spent most of a tank of gas, a very critical calculation in my travel.
Sorry, meant to specify my recent 12-day 19-state trip that included 8 nights at hotels.
I've recently stopped tipping anyone except servers in bars and restaurants. I don't tip hotel/motel maids, either.
It pisses me off that there are tip jars everywhere I go to eat and fast food places print out credit card receipts with a line for a tip. I don't think so, sport. You need to earn more money? Acquire knowledge or a skill set that is worth a higher pay rate in the job market but don't try to guilt trip me into tipping you.
Maybe I'm missing out. The next time I spend 36 hours straight at work over a weekend managing a vendor rep running a platform upgrade I should go around on Monday with a tip jar. Given the warm reception that the last upgrade received I could make dozens of cents.
The presumption here is that LA is so important to people that they will travel to there and stay there regardless of the cost.
That is not true. People will do so until the marginal cost of doing so is less than the return for doing so. This is easily seen even by lefty ignoramuses in that they provide 'tax free' offers for businesses to relocate; lower government mandated costs.
The council has decided they know what that marginal cost is, and the odds-on bet is that they have no idea whatsoever; they are politico ignoramuses hoping to use their power to stay in office.
Depending on what the market minimum wage is now, it may not make a lot of difference, other than ignoramuses trolling for votes.
Tourism is big in LA, and the wealthy Asians (Chinese) and Europeans who visit the places once in two years for vacation probably won't stay at some flea motel to save money. They'll run up their credit card bills if necessary.
But if word gets out that smaller hotels with less room can offer cheaper rates, then it might be bad news for the hotel chains.
Goodbye downtown LA. Hello, outside cities.
It's great that hotel workers will make more money. Too bad they will lose their jobs.