Los Angeles Hotel Worker Wage Ordinance: What the Referendum Pause Means

Updated November 8, 2026. This article was first written in early August 2025, while a referendum petition had suspended a Los Angeles ordinance raising wages for hotel and airport workers. It describes the situation as it stood then, when the ordinance was not in effect. What happened afterward, including the date the ordinance took effect and a 2026 amendment, is kept separate in the “Current context” section near the end. It is general information, not legal advice.

A wage law on pause

Hotel restaurants, lobby bars, banquet kitchens, and room service operations in Los Angeles have been watching one local law closely this summer. In May 2025, the Los Angeles City Council passed Ordinance No. 188610, which raises minimum wages for hotel workers and airport workers, adds a health benefit payment, and creates a new training requirement for hotel room attendants. The ordinance text shows it was passed May 23, 2025 and approved May 27, 2025, and it scheduled the first increase for July 1, 2025.

That increase did not happen on July 1. On June 27, 2025, the Los Angeles City Clerk announced in a press release that a referendum petition against the ordinance had been filed. The release stated that, as a result, Ordinance No. 188610 “is suspended and will not take effect while the petition is being reviewed” to determine whether it contains enough valid signatures.

For hospitality managers, that leaves an uncomfortable middle ground: a law with a schedule, a pause, and an uncertain outcome. This guide explains what the ordinance would require for hotels, how the referendum process works, and how operators can prepare without getting ahead of the law.

Who the hotel provisions cover

The ordinance amends the Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage provisions of the Los Angeles Municipal Code. In the ordinance’s training article, “Hotel” means an establishment with 60 or more guest rooms providing temporary lodging, and the definition notes that a hotel may provide services such as restaurants, bars, and meeting rooms. It also includes contracted, leased, or sublet premises operated in conjunction with a hotel or used primarily to provide services at a hotel.

“Hotel Worker” is defined as a person whose primary place of employment is at one or more hotels and who is employed directly by the hotel employer, or by a person who has contracted with the hotel employer to provide services at the hotel. Managerial, supervisory, and confidential employees are excluded from that definition.

The contractor language matters. A restaurant group that operates a hotel’s lobby bar under a contract, or a staffing company that supplies banquet servers, should not assume the hotel’s wage obligations stop at the hotel’s own payroll.

The wage schedule in the ordinance

As passed, the ordinance sets the hotel worker wage rate, where the employer provides health benefits, at:

• $22.50 per hour beginning July 1, 2025
• $25.00 per hour beginning July 1, 2026
• $27.50 per hour beginning July 1, 2027
• $30.00 per hour beginning July 1, 2028
• Annual cost-of-living adjustments beginning July 1, 2029

The ordinance shows the prior rate of $20.32 per hour beginning July 1, 2024. Because of the referendum suspension, the July 1, 2025 rate has not taken effect as of this writing.

Health benefits and service charges

Beginning July 1, 2026, the ordinance would require hotel employers to make a health benefit payment per hour equal to the payment in effect for airport employees, or to pay that amount as additional wages if they do not provide health benefits. Health coverage, dental, vision, mental health, and disability income count; retirement and life insurance do not. Health benefits are not required on overtime hours.

One provision deserves attention from food and beverage managers: the ordinance states that a hotel employer may not use gratuities, service charge distributions, or bonuses earned by a hotel worker to offset the required wages. Tips and banquet service charges remain on top of the minimum, not part of it.

Airport food and beverage operators

The ordinance applies a parallel schedule to employees of employers servicing the airport, which covers concessions such as airport restaurants and bars. For those employees, where health benefits are provided, it sets wage rates of $22.50 beginning July 1, 2025, rising to $25.00 in 2026, $27.50 in 2027, and $30.00 in 2028, with annual adjustments after that. It also raises the airport health benefit payment to at least $7.65 per hour beginning July 1, 2025, up from $5.95, and requires employers that do not provide benefits to pay the difference as additional wages. Like the hotel provisions, these changes are suspended while the referendum petition is reviewed.

A training requirement for room attendants

The ordinance also adds a Hotel Worker Training Ordinance. It would require hotel employers to ensure room attendants attend a “Public Housekeeping Training” of no less than six hours, paid by the employer and provided by a training organization certified by the city, with workers paid their wage rate during training. The training elements include worker rights and steps to identify potential human trafficking and sexual and domestic violence. While this does not apply directly to servers and bartenders, hotel food and beverage teams often work alongside housekeeping and share safety concerns.

How the referendum process works

The City Clerk’s June 27 release explains the next steps. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk verifies signatures. If the petition lacks enough valid signatures, a certificate of insufficiency issues and the ordinance takes effect on the date of that certificate. If it has enough, the ordinance remains suspended and does not take effect unless approved by voters at an election called by the City Council. The release states the petition needs valid signatures of at least 92,998 registered city voters.

In other words, as of early August 2025, there are two possible outcomes, and the timing of either is uncertain.

What operators can do during the pause

Preparing is not the same as complying early, and businesses should take advice on their particular situation. But several steps make sense regardless of the outcome.

Map who is covered. Identify every worker whose primary place of employment is a covered hotel, including those employed by contractors, and confirm who is managerial or supervisory.

Model the cost. Run payroll scenarios at $22.50 and at later scheduled rates so a sudden effective date does not become a budget crisis.

Separate tips and service charges in payroll. Because the ordinance bars using gratuities and service charge distributions to offset wages, accurate payroll coding will matter.

Review contracts. Lease and management agreements for hotel outlets should address who bears wage increases if the ordinance takes effect.

Watch official sources. Monitor the City Clerk and the city’s Office of Wage Standards for announcements, rather than relying on rumor.

Keep good records. Whatever happens, wage disputes are decided on records. Keep accurate time records, pay stubs that separate base wages from tips and service charges, and documentation of any health benefits provided and their hourly cost. If the ordinance takes effect, those records will show exactly when and how the business adjusted. If it does not, they still support compliance with existing wage law.

Communicate carefully with staff. Employees have heard about the ordinance. Tell them honestly that it is suspended pending signature review, and that the business will follow the law when the outcome is known.

A hotel bar scenario

A restaurant group runs the lobby bar and a ground-floor restaurant in a 300-room downtown hotel under a management agreement. Its bartenders and servers work only at the hotel. In June, the group’s finance team built a budget assuming the $22.50 rate on July 1. The petition filing changed that overnight. Rather than cutting the increase from its plans, the group kept two versions of its payroll model: one with the old rate, one with the new. It reviewed its agreement with the hotel to see who bears increased labor costs, coded tips and banquet service charges separately so they cannot be confused with base wages, and drafted a short staff memo explaining the pause. When the outcome is announced, the group can switch to the correct payroll in a single pay period, without scrambling.

Questions managers are hearing

“Do I get the raise retroactively?” The City Clerk’s release says that if the petition is insufficient, the ordinance takes effect on the date of the certificate of insufficiency. It does not describe retroactive pay. Employees with specific questions should contact the city’s Office of Wage Standards.

“Do my tips count toward the new rate?” Under the ordinance, gratuities and service charge distributions may not be used to offset the required wage.

“Does this apply to small hotels?” The ordinance’s definition uses 60 or more guest rooms.

Wages, staffing, and responsible service

Wage changes affect staffing, and staffing affects service. Short-staffed bars are where over-service and missed ID checks happen. Whatever the outcome, hotel food and beverage managers should keep enough trained bartenders and servers on each shift to monitor guests properly. Our guides to workplace violence prevention plans and immigration worksite enforcement obligations cover other workforce issues that hotels in Los Angeles are managing at the same time.

Current context as of November 8, 2026

After this article was written, the referendum failed. A City Clerk Certification of Insufficiency dated September 8, 2025 states that the petition did not contain the required number of valid signatures and that Ordinance No. 188610 took effect on the date of the certification. The city’s Office of Wage Standards hotel worker ordinances page reports that on May 26, 2026, an amendment (Ordinance 188944) was approved that affects the July 1, 2026 health benefit payment and scheduled wage increases beginning July 1, 2027. The page states that as of July 1, 2026, hotel employers must pay a health benefit rate of $4.25 per hour, or pay that amount as additional wages, and that hotel employers must provide public housekeeping training of at least 5.5 hours beginning December 1, 2025. The wage schedule listed earlier in this article is the original 2025 schedule. Employers should use the current wage chart from the Office of Wage Standards.

The bottom line

As of August 2025, Los Angeles’s hotel and airport wage ordinance is passed but suspended. Hotel food and beverage operators should know who would be covered, model the costs, keep tips and service charges out of the wage calculation, and watch official city sources for the outcome.

Sources

1. City of Los Angeles: Ordinance No. 188610 (passed May 23, 2025; clerk's notice of Sept. 8, 2025 effective date)
2. LA City Clerk: Referendum petition filed (June 27, 2025)
3. LA City Clerk: Certification of Insufficiency (Sept. 8, 2025, current note)
4. Wages LA: Hotel Worker Ordinances (current note)

This article is general information, not legal advice.