City Councilmembers Mike Bonin, Nury Martinez, and Curren Price Jr. are proposing increasing the wages of hotel workers in the city to $15.37 per hour. The wage increase would apply to as many as 11,000 hotel employees who work in hotels with more than 100 rooms throughout the city. Hotel workers like Guadalupe Mora think the wage hike will be a big help. Mora, a mother of four, hopes to be able to buy a house someday. The City Councilmembers who proposed the hike agree that as LA’s tourism industry grows, hotel workers derseve to share in the wealth.

But the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Hotel Association of Los Angeles, and other business organizations are hesitant about the plan. Ruben Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce said the wage hike could give Los Angeles a “competitive disadvantage” compared to other nearby cities. He also said he thinks the proposal has more to do with unionizing non-union hotels than supporting workers.

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