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≡ “OLYMPIC WAGE” REVISED ≡
With only a few people sitting in the Los Angeles City Council chamber, compared to the full houses to push for the “Olympic wage” ordinance for airport workers and airport-area hotel workers, the L.A. City Council passed on Tuesday a revision to spreads the minimum wage increases out to 2030.
As a result, the ready-for-November ballot initiative created by business interests to repeal the City’s business tax – and create a devastating $860 million hole in the City budget – was withdrawn and that action was approved with a 14-0 vote.
The back story:
● The “Olympic wage” ordinance was passed by the City Council and signed by Mayor Karen Bass and went into effect in September 2025, raising the minimum wage for airport workers and hotel workers in properties of 60 or more rooms, from $22.50 per hour in 2025 to $25.00-27.50-30.00 in 2026-27-28.
● Business interests tried, but failed, to collect enough signature for a referendum on the increases, so they pivoted and did raise enough signatures for an initiative on the November 2026 ballot which would eliminate the City’s business tax, threatening the City’s financial stability.
It was stated that the City’s ability to provide services to host the 2028 Olympic Games would be imperiled if the measure were to pass.
● City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson introduced a motion last December to stretch the increases out to 2030, and he, business representatives, the unions and other City Council members worked through a difficult set of talks that finally yielded an agreement.
The revised ordinance moves the increases out to 2030, starting with $22.50 as of 1 July 2025, then $25.00 on 1 July 2026, $25.50 on 1 July 2027, $28.50 on 1 July 2028, $29.00 on 1 July 2029 and $30.00 on 1 July 2030.
This passed the City Council, with no fanfare other than being called for a separate vote, by 11-3.
Beyond the business and labor interests, the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee was also a winner, as the new ordinance appears to create labor certainty in the hotel and airport sectors through the Games period and on to 2030.
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Another item on Tuesday’s agenda that passed by 14-0 as part of a vote on a group of motions was a directive by the City Council for the “City Administrative Officer (CAO) and Chief Legislative Analyst to negotiate a contract between the City and the University of Southern California (USC) to provide supplemental City services for the Events in the City of Los Angeles at venues including but not limited to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with full reimbursement of all provided supplemental City services, and that said contract be for a term of three years with an option to extend for an additional two years (five years total).”
This is important as confirmation of the City’s “full reimbursement” requirement for special events; the City and the LA28 organizers are locked in a battle over responsibility for payment of the currently-estimated $728.8 million in security costs for the Los Angeles Police Department to provide during the 2028 Games.
Discussions with the organizers are continuing, and both the City and LA28 are trying to obtain funding from the Federal government to cover all security costs for the Games.
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