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It's a temporary reprieve for a sector that has been struggling for years. But the fight is just getting started.
In May of last year, the Los Angeles City Council voted to raise the minimum wage for hotel workers in the city to $30 an hour by 2028. This represented the culmination of over a decade of hotel-specific minimum wage rises in the city, which have hampered the hotel industry and reduced employment.
But last month, at the last minute, the city council voted to delay the enactment of the $30 wage by two years to 2030, buying a temporary reprieve for the hotel sector. While a delay is better than nothing, the City of Angels—and progressive politicians across the country—should use the experience of L.A.'s hotel wage to revisit their misguided wage policies entirely.
The drama over L.A.'s hotel minimum wage dates back to 2015, when the city enacted a $15.37 minimum wage for the lodging sector. The wage was indexed to inflation, meaning that it steadily increased over time, reaching just over $21 an hour by 2025. For comparison, L.A.'s regular minimum wage was $10.50 in 2016 and stands at $17.87 today, with an increase to $18.42 scheduled to take place on July 1.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Reason
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C. Jarrett Dieterle is a legal policy fellow for the Manhattan Institute.