LA Councilman Introduces Motion to Address Potential Delay of `Olympic Wage’

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City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez introduced a motion Friday calling on top city officials to work on a contingency plan to ensure hotel and airport workers receive back pay if a referendum effort delays a recently approved minimum wage increase for such workers, which is scheduled to take effect this month.

The motion intends to calculate the total wages that could be lost due a potential delay, and explore whether they could be eligible for retroactive pay if the referendum fails to qualify for the ballot, as well as potential recourse that may exist if L.A. voters are misled by paid signature-gatherers during the process.

“Corporations have made it clear that they’re willing to use every dirty trick in the book to reverse progress and lower wages — we need to be prepared for them to go even lower,” Soto-Martínez said in a statement. “Don’t be fooled, and don’t sign the misleading petition.”

The motion was referred to the Economic Development and Jobs Committee, and thereafter will be considered by the full City Council.

Elected officials approved an ordinance in May, providing hotel and airport workers with $30 per hour by 2028. Starting in July, workers are expected to receive $22.50 per hour, followed by annual $2.50 increases over three years. Workers would receive $25 an hour beginning in July 2026, $27.50 an hour in July 2027 and $30 an hour in July 2028, in time for the Olympics, as well as receive a new $8.35 per hour health care payment, which will begin in July 2026.

Sonia Ceron, Flying Food Group dishwasher and member of UNITE HERE Local 11, supported Soto-Martínez’s motion. According to Ceron, she is a single mother and by delaying an increase in her wages it means she will struggle to provide for her 12-year-old daughter.

“I already work two jobs to make ends meet and keep a roof over our heads. The loss of these wages could be the reason me and many other families end up on the street,” Ceron said in a statement.

Last week, the L.A. City Clerk’s office announced that it certified the referendum effort launched by a coalition of airlines, hotels and concession companies at Los Angeles International Airport known as the Los Angeles Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress. The petition was filed two days after Mayor Karen Bass signed the ordinance into law and four days after the City Council gave its final approval.

The group has until June 30 to gather nearly 93,000 signatures from registered voters in Los Angeles to qualify the measure for the June 2026 ballot.

Petitioners can submit more signatures, but cannot fall short of 92,998 valid signatures, which can be the case as a result of duplicates, unregistered voters or signatures from people who live outside of the city.

“If 92,998 valid signatures are submitted, the ordinance is suspended until it can be placed on the ballot and approved by voters at the next scheduled general election in June 2026, the motion reads. “However, under current law, the ordinance is also suspended while signatures on the petition are being verified — even if the petition ultimately fails to qualify for the ballot.”

Phil Singer, a spokesman for the coalition, told the Los Angeles Times the wage increase “threatens revenue Los Angeles urgently needs.”

“Small businesses will be forced to shut down, workers will lose their jobs, and the economic fallout will stretch across the city,” Singer told The Times. “We’re fighting for all of it: the city’s future, the jobs that sustain our communities, and the millions of guests the tourism industry proudly serves year after year.”

In response, members of the Tourism Workers Rising Coalition, which lobbied for the minimum wage increase, launched a campaign, known as “Defend The Wage LA.” The coalition — which is made up of organizations including the Unite Here Local 11 and Services Employees International United-United Service Workers West unions and Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which describes itself as “an organizing and advocacy institution committed to economic, environmental and racial justice” — urged L.A. voters not to sign the petition and encouraged people to report any petition gathers online at LAANE’s website, laane.org/olympicwage/, or at it’s hotline at 909-326-0042.

The union argued that in the two years since the ordinance was introduced, the CEOs of Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Hilton and Marriott reached over $330 million in compensation. The petition has received major funding from Delta and United, as well as the American Hotel & Lodging Association, an industry grade group.

The union previously led efforts to increase the minimum wage for tourism workers in nearby cities. The minimum wage for hotel workers in Santa Monica was increased in 2016, in West Hollywood in 2021, in Glendale in 2022 and in Long Beach in 2024.

“The airlines and hotels would rather spend millions to overturn the living wage than give workers a dime now,” said David Huerta, president of SEIU-USWW. “These are billion-dollar companies fighting to make sure that working families in L.A. don’t get a raise. Don’t be complicit. Don’t sign the CEO’s petition.”