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LONG BEACH HOTEL WORKERS TO EARN HIGHEST MINIMUM WAGE  
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Mark Kreidler
March 15, 2024
Capital and Main
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_ A ballot measure to raise pay to $23 an hour could help workers in
labor negotiations and boost the local economy. _

, Dimensions/Getty Images

 

PART OF THE LOS ANGELES region’s “hot labor summer” of 2023 was
a growing recognition that the runaway cost of living was squeezing
workers and families. It was perhaps the primary driver of the rolling
strikes
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by unionized workers at 60 area hotels during contract negotiations,
with many of those negotiations ongoing.

But bargaining-table pressure and picket lines are not the only
mechanisms for addressing this issue. And voters in Long Beach have
likely just approved another path.

Measure RW, on which Long Beach residents voted during last week’s
primary, significantly raises the minimum wage for workers at Long
Beach hotels with more than 100 rooms. Election results are not final,
but according to the latest Los Angeles County returns
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will pass with 53% approval. It’s a major win for those hotel
workers and the groups that pushed for the measure.

The affected workers will see the minimum wage rise from the current
$17.55 per hour to $23 in July, then escalate annually to $29.50 by
the time of the 2028 Olympics in and around Los Angeles. The measure
guarantees Long Beach hotel workers the highest minimum wage in the
nation, according to the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, or
LAANE.

LAANE was one of several groups that conducted a boots-on-the-ground
campaign in favor of the measure, knocking on an estimated 104,000
doors, making 100,000 calls and meeting with about 20,000 Long Beach
voters. The election returns indicate that RW will win by a margin of
roughly 4,000 votes in a depressed voter turnout.

“Long Beach is leading the way,” said Ada Briceño, co-president
of UNITE HERE Local 11, which also campaigned for the measure. “When
workers in Long Beach do better, the whole city thrives.”

Briceño’s union represents some 15,000 hotel workers across the Los
Angeles region – including many in Long Beach — who began arduous
negotiations with their hotels last summer. While UNITE HERE has
reached agreement with two Hyatt properties in Long Beach, it remains
locked in a bitter and at times violent
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dispute with the Hotel Maya there. (Disclosure: UNITE HERE is a
financial supporter of Capital & Main.)

Measure RW potentially raises the floor for such negotiations, and not
for the first time in Long Beach. Voters there approved a measure in
2012 that raised hotel workers’ minimum wage to $13, and the minimum
has slowly crept upward since then — though nowhere near keeping
pace with the spiking costs of housing, food and transportation.

Supporters of RW included a coalition of small business owners in Long
Beach, who cited statistics showing that when local workers get a
raise in wages, they spend more money locally. That money, too, tends
to stay in town; the Downtown Long Beach Alliance has estimated
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that every dollar spent in a local business generates about 40 cents
in additional “spillover” revenue on items like parking, eating
and shipping.

“We understand the fundamental relationship between workers’ wages
and the health of our local economy,” Long Beach business owners Tom
Reed and Jorge Valdez wrote
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in the days before the March 5 election. “Hotel workers are our
neighbors and customers of the city’s small businesses; when they
make a living wage, the money circulates back into the city and we all
do better.”

Opponents of the measure, including the Los Angeles County Business
Federation, said
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RW was rushed to the ballot without sufficient economic impact study.
They also objected to what they called a “special interest
loophole,” a reference to the fact that unionized hotels may waive
the minimum while negotiating their deals.

But initiatives like RW help set parameters for meaningful
negotiations, which is especially attractive in an era of hotel
consolidation by mega-corporations like Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott.
While unions are allowed to waive the provision under RW, there is no
practical scenario under which they’d accept less than the
voter-approved minimum.

“The Long Beach community, once again, stood with workers in their
fight for family-sustaining wages,” Grecia Lopez-Reyes, campaign
director of Long Beach for a Just Economy, said in a
statement. “This is a major victory for working families in Long
Beach.”

These sorts of local measures may become critically important in the
years ahead. A report released this week
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Legislative Analyst’s Office concluded that workers earning
California’s $16 an hour minimum wage will struggle to afford
housing almost anywhere in the state. It also noted that some of the
state’s highest-cost areas don’t have enhanced local minimums to
address that obvious problem.

Measure RW isn’t a citywide minimum; it is directed at a specific
subset of workers. But those workers are part of a massive economic
driver for Long Beach, with an estimated $1.8 billion
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annual impact citywide from tourism and hospitality. And it may well
serve as a blueprint for voters in other cities looking for ways to
keep lower-wage workers, the backbone of so many businesses, as part
of vibrant local economies.

Capital & Main is an award-winning nonprofit publication that reports
from California on the most pressing economic, environmental and
social issues of our time.  Winner of the 2016 Online Journalist of
the Year prize from the Southern California Journalism Awards and a
2017 Best in the West award, Capital & Main has had
stories co-published in more than 30 media outlets, from _The
Atlantic_,_ Time_,_ Reuters_,_ The Guardian _and_ Fast
Company _to_ The American Prospect_,_ Grist_,_ Slate _and
the_ Daily Beast. _Working with top writers, editors and visual
artists, we cover income inequality, climate change, the green
economy, housing, health care, public education, immigration, race,
and criminal justice. Capital & Main is a 501(c)3 tax exempt
organization.

* Minimum Wage
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* Hotel workers
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