The
Los Angeles city council has voted to raise the minimum wage at large hotels to
$15.37 (£9.41) per hour.
In a
12-3 vote, the council approved the rise for hotels with more than 300 rooms on
1 July 2015 and for hotels with more than 150 rooms a year later.
The
new wage floor would be one of the highest in the US.
It
was opposed by the hotel industry, which said it would force worker
redundancies. Mayor Eric Garcetti has said he will sign the bill into law.
Under
the measure passed on Wednesday, the minimum could be temporarily waived for
hotels facing bankruptcy or imminent closure. Hotels with unionised workers
could also be exempt if minimum wages are defined in collective bargaining
agreements.
It is
unclear how many workers the rise will affect. An earlier study, based on a
threshold of 125 rooms, estimated
