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New Laws for 2014: Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (Los Angeles)


Two posts in one day?   Why yes.  Have a layover in Phoenix for work and given my post earlier today on recent minimum wage increases in San Francisco am Oakland, I think this post fits right in. 


Last month, the Los Angeles City Council passed the Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance which has a broad impact across the board for hotel workers, beyond just the minimum wage rate.  As a result, let me point out a few of the big parts of the Ordinance:

  • The Ordinance applies to hotels with 150+ guest rooms within the Los Angeles city limits.  Hotels with the Airport Enterprise Hospitality Zone are included, however the Ordinance does not apply to cities like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Glendale, Pasadena, and Long Beach.
  • The minimum wage increase is as follows:  hotels with 300+ guest rooms must pay all employees $15.37/hour by July 1, 2015; hotels with 150+ guest rooms must pay all employees $15.37/hour by July 1, 2016.  Perhaps most importantly, there is no tip credit; as a result, the minimum wage increase applies to tipped employees.
  • The Ordinance requires more than the Paid Sick Leave Law (AB 1522) which requires California employers to provide paid sick leave as of July 1, 2015 (Paid Sick Leave Blog).  The Ordinance requires an accrual of up to 96 hours of paid time off for all full-time employees with proportional accruals for part-time employees.  This is a required carryover and has a cap of at least 192 hours.  Hit the cap you say?  Well, the excess of accrued time off after hitting the cap must be paid out every 30 days at the employee's current rate of pay.
  • Unpaid time off is also provided for by the Ordinance, with an additional 80 hours for full-time employees with proportional accruals for part-time employees.
  • Use of paid time off and unpaid sick leave may now be used after six months on the job.  Time off for either paid or unpaid leave cannot be "unreasonably denied" and perhaps most importantly, employees do not need to provide advance notice before using it. 

For those wily hotel employers who want to close rooms to get under the limit...tough luck, that is not allowed.  The Ordinance specifies it is the number of rooms when the hotel opened, or on December 31, 2012, whichever is greater, which is used to calculate how the Ordinance will be applied. 


Additional information on the Ordinance can be found here:  http://www.foxrothschild.com/newspubs/newspubsArticle.aspx?id=19327353482

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