What Happened
The council met on May 14, 2025, with 14-15 members present, to take up the Economic Development and Jobs Committee report on a package of amendments to the Living Wage Ordinance and Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (Item 5, CF 14-1371-S13), commonly referred to in public comment as the "Olympic wage" or "tourism worker rising" measure, which would raise hotel and airport worker wages toward $30 an hour by 2028 along with expanded health benefits, training requirements, and enforcement. Adam Burke, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, testified at length that an Oxford Economics analysis commissioned by his organization projected the wage increase would cost the region $2.3 billion in annual local business sales, $55 million in local tax revenue, and nearly 15,000 jobs, citing declining international and domestic travel to Los Angeles tied to wildfire misperceptions, federal immigration-enforcement rhetoric, and tariff-driven cost increases; Council Member Monica Rodriguez cited the same analysis in questioning the ordinance's timing. John Reamer, director of the Bureau of Contract Administration, told the council his bureau had requested five new positions — a compliance program manager, a data analyst, and three management analysts — to handle the new investigative, waiver-review, and training-oversight responsibilities the ordinance would assign it, funding Council Member Tim McOsker said would need to be included in the budget for the enforcement authority to be more than "a fiction."
The council considered seven separate floor amendments to the underlying committee report. An amendment from Council Member Imelda Padilla revising hotel-housekeeping training and certification requirements passed unanimously. An amendment from Council Member John Lee to raise the "limited-service hotel" exemption threshold from 60 to 150 rooms — which small, guest-room-only hotel operators said they needed to avoid seeing 45% of their revenue in wage costs rise to 83% — failed 5-10, with Council Member Hugo Soto-Martinez arguing it would functionally exempt far more hotels from the wage increase and cause pay cuts for workers already covered. A substitute motion from Council Member Katy Yaroslavsky delaying the pace of the ordinance's healthcare-benefit increase, while preserving current benefit levels and a smaller wage increase than originally proposed, passed unanimously; Yaroslavsky said it reflected new economic headwinds since the council's initial September 2024 vote, including the January wildfires and a national decline in tourism. An amendment from Council Members Rodriguez, Lee, and Traci Park narrowing the legal definition of "hotel worker" to exclude tipped and variable-compensation employees and those contracted rather than directly employed — which City Attorney's office staff and Council Members Bob Blumenfield and Soto-Martinez said would cut the pay of hotel restaurant workers from $20.32 to the citywide minimum of $17.28 and strip their health benefits — was referred back to committee for further drafting after members raised concerns about its unintended effects. An amendment from Council Member Adrin Nazarian, developed over several months, adding a monthly cash-in-lieu payment ($100 for full-time and $50 for part-time workers) for employees who waive the health benefit because they already have coverage through a spouse, domestic partner, parent, Medicare, or the VA, passed 14-1 after extended discussion clarified it would not reduce required employer health-plan spending. An amendment from Council Member Nithya Raman requiring a Chief Legislative Analyst report on the ordinance's tourism-industry impacts six months before and six and twelve months after implementation passed unanimously. The council held the underlying item on the desk to allow the City Attorney's office to finalize amended ordinance language before formal adoption.
Contested Votes
The council adopted, 12-3-0, an amendment from Council Members Heather Hutt and Curren Price to the hotel and airport worker wage ordinance package (Item 5). Council Members John Lee, Traci Park, and Monica Rodriguez voted no without recorded floor debate on this specific amendment.
The council rejected, 5-10-0, Council Member John Lee's amendment raising the limited-service hotel exemption threshold from 60 to 150 rooms.
The council adopted, 14-1-0, Council Member Adrin Nazarian's amendment establishing a monthly cash-in-lieu payment for hotel and airport workers who waive the health benefit due to coverage through other means. Council Member Traci Park cast the lone no vote.
The council adopted, 13-2-0, the underlying committee report as amended. Council Members John Lee and Traci Park voted no.
The council gave final adoption, 12-3-0, to the full Living Wage Ordinance and Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance package as amended. Council Members John Lee, Traci Park, and Monica Rodriguez voted no.
Public Comment
Public comment ran heavily in favor of the wage increase, with speakers from the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council — reading a community impact statement adopted by 16 neighborhood councils citywide — Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, and current and former hospitality workers urging passage, citing a city-commissioned economic analysis on local spending impact and describing rent burdens that require hotel and LAX workers to work 14-hour days to afford a two-bedroom apartment at current wages. Former City Controller Rick Tuttle recalled a 1997 living-wage fight led by then-Council Member Jackie Goldberg that predicted economic collapse that did not materialize. Opponents included a parking-company representative serving more than 50 hotels who warned of service cuts and layoffs, and an independent limited-service hotel operator who said the increase would push labor costs to 83% of revenue and urged the council to adopt an exemption similar to one in Long Beach. Other speakers urged the council to restore funding for day-labor centers and the Represent LA immigrant legal-defense program amid federal immigration enforcement.