LA City Councilman wants $25 minimum wage for LAX and tourism workers
LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles City Councilman Curren Price announced Monday he will introduce a motion this week that would raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour for tourism workers and fix loopholes in current policies in an effort to keep workers healthy and housed.
Price, along with SEIU United Service Workers West and Unite Here Local 11, the unions representing tourism workers, will hold a news conference at 9 a.m. Wednesday to discuss the motion. More than 100 tourism workers, specifically hotel and Los Angeles International Airport workers who would be impacted by the proposal, are expected to join the councilman and speak to the difficulty of surviving on the current wage.
According to a statement from Price's office, the motion will ensure the future growth of the tourism industry as it gears up to host global events like the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games.
"Meanwhile, wages aren't enough to keep tourism workers housed, as Los Angeles grapples with an unprecedented housing crisis," Price said in a statement. "Many of the working people who are the foundation of L.A.'s tourism economy, working in L.A. hotels and at LAX, are struggling to survive on the city's current living wage, facing housing and food insecurity, or forced to work two jobs."
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The unions representing tourism workers will also announce the Tourism Workers Rising campaign, an effort to update living wage policy and push for quality health care and worker protections.
The city's minimum wage will increase to $16.78 per hour on July 1.
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