Did Los Angeles Approve a $30 Minimum Wage for Hospitality Workers? Here’s What We Know

Los Angeles Minimum Wage: In May 2025, the Los Angeles City Council agreed to bring a big change for hotel workers and those working at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). They voted to slowly increase the minimum wage until it reaches $30 an hour by July 2028. The council voted 12-3 in favor of this decision, and now it only needs the final signature from Mayor Karen Bass to become official. The idea behind this plan is to give workers better pay and conditions, especially since Los Angeles will be hosting the 2028 Olympic Games.

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Los Angeles Minimum Wage

Workers in these sectors earn less than what is considered enough in an expensive city like Los Angeles. The pay increase won’t happen all at once. It will begin in July 2025 when the hourly wage will be raised to $22.50. Then each year, it will go up by $2.50 until it hits $30 in 2028. There’s another rule too starting in July 2026, if a company does not give health insurance to their workers, they will have to pay $8.35 more per hour to those workers. This is an increase from the current extra amount of $5.95.

• July 2025: $22.50 per hour
• July 2026: $25.00 per hour
• July 2027: $27.50 per hour
• July 2028: $30.00 per hour

Who Will Get This Pay Raise?

This new rule will only apply to hotels that have more than 60 rooms and to private businesses at the airport, like airline companies and shops that work inside the airport. This means many people who work in tourism and hospitality will benefit from the change. These are people who do cleaning, food service, baggage handling, and other important jobs that keep things running smoothly in hotels and at the airport.

Another part of this plan is training. All hotel workers will have to take at least six hours of training that teaches them about labor rights and how to stay safe. The training will also help them learn how to spot and prevent things like domestic violence and human trafficking.

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Many people are happy about this new wage plan. Labor unions and groups who fight for workers’ rights think this is a big win. They say workers in these jobs are very important and deserve to earn enough money to live better lives. Since Los Angeles is such an expensive city, this wage increase could make a real difference for many families.

But not everyone is happy. Some hotel and travel business owners are worried that this new rule will hurt them. They believe paying higher wages might force them to reduce how many people they hire or cut down the number of hours employees work. Some even fear that travelers might stop coming if hotel prices go up too much.