Los Angeles minimum wage increases July 1: What to know

LOS ANGELES - Heads up if you work in the city of Los Angeles - minimum wage goes up this Friday. 

Effective July 1, the city's minimum wage will increase from $15 per hour to $16.04 per hour for all covered employees. 

Covered employees are defined by law as those who perform at least two hours of work in any week within city limits. This includes full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary employees.

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Hotel employers with 150 or more guest rooms will be required to pay an even higher minimum wage of $18.17. Full-time covered hotel employees will also receive 96 compensated hours off per year for sick leave, vacation, or personal necessity. 

Los Angeles also has its own paid sick leave requirements that exceed California’s requisite hours. Los Angeles employers must either grant 48 hours at the beginning of each year or 12-month period or allow accrual at no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked. Employers may cap usage at 48 hours of leave annually but they cannot cap total accrual to less than 72 hours.  

The minimum wage in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County will increase to $15.96 an hour as of July 1, according to the Department of Business and Consumer Affairs.

The rate marks a 6.4% increase over the current $15/hour minimum wage. The rate has risen steadily since 2016, when the county adopted a minimum wage ordinance that slowly increased the amount annually, reaching $15/hour on July 1, 2020, for large businesses and on July 1, 2021, for smaller businesses.

Following the pre-determined increases, future hikes will be based on increases in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index.