Los Angeles airport restaurant workers will soon be making $30 an hour

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday in favor of raising the hourly minimum wage for tourism workers (including airport and hotel workers) gradually to $30 by 2028.

Known colloquially as “The Olympic Wage,” the legislation is meant to bolster the tourism workforce as the city prepares to host several major international sporting events over the next several years, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl, and the 2028 Summer Olympics.

According to the legislation, the wages for these workers, which include foodservice employees at hotels and airport restaurants, will increase incrementally over the next five years, starting with $22.50 on Feb. 1, 2025, then increasing to $25 in 2026, $27 in 2027, and $30 per hour by 2028. On top of that, workers would also receive an additional healthcare plan, worth $8.35 weekly, according to ABC News.

"No one should work a full-time job in the city of L.A .and not be able to afford a place to live," City Council president, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, said in a statement.

According to ABC News, airport and hotel workers currently earn $18.78 per hour and $19.73 per hour, respectively, with an additional $5.95 weekly healthcare payment for airport workers, which hotel employees do not have.  

The approved legislation would much more gradually increase the workers’ hourly wages than the one originally proposed, which would have increased the minimum wage to $25 for tourism workers by February 2025.

“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, it makes me happy to see this finally move forward,” Lorena Mendez, an airport worker, told the Unite Here Local 11 union, which represents many service workers in Los Angeles. “With the $20 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.”

The legislation does provide some exceptions to the minimum wage law, like exemptions for concessions businesses with 50 or fewer employees at Los Angeles Airport.

Critics of the bill expressed concern that such a steep wage increase could harm the very industries — and subsequently the employees — that it is trying to boost.

"That's not thoughtful. Tourism, aviation and hospitality have not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels," Chad Maender, president and CEO of the LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. "This ordinance will have a crippling effect beyond just the hotels and LAX."

Contact Joanna at [email protected]