Quick Hits

• On December 11, 2024, the Los Angeles City Council approved yearly incremental increases to the minimum wage rate for airport and hotel workers in the city, beginning with an increase to $22.50 per hour on July 1, 2025, until the rate reaches $30.00 per hour on July 1, 2028.
• The City Council also approved an increase in healthcare benefit payments for hotel workers to $8.25 per hour beginning on July 1, 2025, with annual adjustments.

On December 11, 2024, the Los Angeles City Council voted 12-3 in favor of a motion directing the city attorney to prepare legislation to amend the Living Workers Ordinance (LWO) and the Los Angeles Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (HWMO) to institute yearly minimum wage rate increases for airport and hotel workers up to $30.00 per hour on July 1, 2028, just weeks before Los Angeles is set to host the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The airport and hotel worker minimum wage hike, commonly called the “Olympic Wage,” comes amid pressure from unions and workers groups to increase wages for workers in the tourism industry.

Minimum Wage Increases

The motion calls for raises to the hourly wage for airport and hotel workers as follows:

• $22.50 per hour on July 1, 2025
• $25.00 per hour on July 1, 2026
• $27.50 per hour on July 1, 2027
• $30.00 per hour on July 1, 2028

The new minimum wages will apply to hotels with sixty or more guest rooms under the HWMO. The motion will also add a “hardship exemption clause” to the LWO for “concessionaires” with fifty or fewer employees at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) “under a lease in effect at the time of the passage of the ordinance.” The exemption will be “applicable only to the proposed amendments” and allow businesses to seek a waiver in certain situations to avoid bankruptcy or significant reductions in force—similar to the Los Angeles Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance.

In total, the increases over the next three-and-a-half years are a 56 percent increase for airport workers from the $19.28 minimum wage for airport workers under the LWO and a 48 percent jump for hotel workers from the $20.32 per hour minimum wage rate under the HWMO. The minimum wage rate for other employees in Los Angeles is currently $17.28 per hour.

Healthcare Benefit Payments

The motion further calls for a healthcare benefit payment of $8.35 per hour beginning on July 1, 2025, an increase from the current $5.95 per hour under the LWO. The motion provides that the healthcare benefit payment be “adjusted by the percentage equal to the percentage increase, if any” by state data from the preceding year beginning on July 1, 2026, and occurring annually thereafter.

Civil Action

The motion will allow an employee or an employee’s representative to file a civil action for a violation of the LWO or HWMO after the employee or the employee’s representative has provided written notice to the employer of the alleged violations and the employer does not take action to cure the alleged violations within thirty days of receipt.

Next Steps

The Los Angeles city attorney still must finalize legislation for the minimum wage increases, but it is anticipated that such action will be taken before the first hike on July 1, 2025. Employers at LAX and covered hotels may want to consider steps to begin compliance with the new obligations and review other recent adjustments to minimum wages in California.

The Los Angeles airport and hotel worker minimum wage increase comes after California voters defeated a measure in November 2024 that would have raised the statewide minimum wage to $18.00 per hour. In April 2024, the minimum wage for California fast-food workers increased to $20.00 under the California Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act (FAST Recovery Act).