LA Times: L.A. expected to soon debate raising minimum wage for hotel workers

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-hotel-wages-20140114,0,771251.story#axzz2qKbf7hPN

L.A. City Council members are expected to propose requiring large hotels to pay employees $15 an hour, double the national minimum.


By James Rainey

January 13, 2014, 4:57 p.m.

Los Angeles could soon take the national lead in dramatically raising the minimum wage — with members of the City Council expected to propose that large hotels be required to pay roughly $15 an hour to their workers.

That rate would more than double the national minimum of $7.25 an hour and push far above California's rate of $8. Union leaders want the increase to apply at hotels with 100 rooms or more, saying such a hike would lift housekeepers, busboys and maintenance workers out of poverty and inject much-needed cash into a still languorous local economy.

Council members were expected to bring the proposal forward in the coming weeks. Most declined to discuss how they would vote, though Councilman Paul Koretz called the $15 rate "reasonable in a city where costs are so high." The political debate is expected to take months, with the precise rate and size of hotels affected subject to change as the hotel lobby attempts to resist.

But the liberal Democrats who dominate city government have a history of cooperation with organized labor, and council leaders have signaled they believe the measure has a good chance of passing. Without offering details, a spokesman said Mayor Eric Garcetti supports "building pathways to the middle class."

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-hotel-wages-20140114,0,771251.story#ixzz2qWIegCUb


FULL story at link.