The contest for Olympic gold in Los Angeles has already begun—even though the games don’t start for three more years. In this case the gold will be in the paychecks of the city’s airport and hotel workers. The city is lifting their wages and health-care benefits in the face of predictions of dire economic consequences by their employers.
Mayor Karen Bass has signed a bill passed in late May by Los Angeles City Council labeled the Living Wage Ordinance. It’s also being called the Olympic Wage—because it will boost wages for Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and workers at the city’s major hotels to $30 per hour, the highest in the nation, by 2028, when L.A. hosts the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The proposed new law applies to hotels with over 60 rooms and businesses operating within LAX. The wage increase will be implemented gradually, starting with $22.50 per hour this July. In July 2026, hotel workers would also receive a health-care credit for the first time.
Tourism workers in Long Beach, another Olympics and Paralympics host city, are also battling for a similar Olympic win.
An ‘Economic Tsunami’
In response, a coalition of airlines, hotels and concession companies at LAX filed paperwork to force a citywide vote on a new ordinance.
The group, known as the L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress, is hoping to persuade voters to repeal the ordinance. The alliance will need to gather about 93,000 signatures within 30 days to qualify the measure for the ballot in an upcoming election.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) opposed the idea of the wage hike from the beginning and called on Mayor Karen Bass to veto the ordinance. AHLA President & CEO Rosanna Maietta said the raises would unleash an “economic tsunami” in the wake of the devastating wildfires, a prolonged international travel slowdown, and a lagging pandemic recovery. “If this ordinance becomes law, the fallout will not be theoretical—it’ll be felt in pink slips, shuttered hotels, and lost tax revenue into the city.”
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Although the Olympics as well as other major tourism events are on the city’s horizon, it’s undeniable that L.A. tourism is currently challenged. According to AHLA, international travel is down 13.5%, Canadian visitation has fallen more than 70%, airlines have pulled over 320,000 seats from LAX, and 11 LA hotels—totaling 3,000-plus rooms—are now flagged on lender watchlists.
Jackie Filla, the Hotel Association of Los Angeles’ president and CEO, said she expects hotels to close restaurants or other small businesses on their premises—and, in some cases, shut down entirely if the wage hike becomes law. In the short term, she said, some will cancel their room block agreements that reserve rooms for the 2028 Games.
“I don’t think anybody wants to do this,” Filla told the LA Times. “Hotels are excited to host guests and participate in the Olympics. But they can’t go into it losing money.”
Fasting for the Gold
Yet proponents have counter arguments. City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, a major proponent of the ordinance, noted on his website that an independent study about the law’s impact found it would lead to an estimated 6,300 new jobs and $1.2 billion added to the region’s GDP because of workers’ increased spending power. “For these essential workers clocking 60 to 80 hours a week just to get by, a living wage means being able to spend time with family, get some rest, and maybe even save a little for the future,” said Soto-Martinez, a former organizer with the hotel and restaurant union Unite Here Local 11.
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The city council only voted to move the ordinance forward after dozens of tourism workers went to the extreme of fasting for three days outside City Hall.
“As a single mother of three who commutes over two hours from Bakersfield to work at LAX’s airline catering company LSG Sky Chef’s,” Lorena Mendez, one of the fasters, was quoted in Newsweek, “it makes me happy to see this finally move forward. With the $20 [an hour] I make, it’s not nearly enough to help me live in Los Angeles. I am proud that city leaders are taking concrete steps to help better the lives of thousands of working families like mine ahead of the Olympics and Paralympics.”
