L.A. City Council approves minimum-wage hike for hotel workers [unions are exempt]

Los Angeles Times ^ | September 24, 2014 | David Zahniser and Emily Alpert Reyes

[grundle]

Big hotels in Los Angeles will soon be required to pay at least $15.37 an hour to their workers...

Hotels that have a unionized workforce can be exempted from paying the $15.37 hourly wage, if workers agree in their contract to relinquish that opportunity.

[grundle]

For unions that support a higher minimum wage to get an exemption for themselves is disgusting.

[vette6387]

LA is pushing a rope again. Nothing can fix what’s happened there. They wanted to be Mexico City del Norte, and the’ve done it.

[econjack]

If those numskulls think $15.37/hr is such a great idea, then obviously $545.37/hr has got to be better. Wonder why they didn’t ask for that amount? Could it be that the demand for labor falls as the price goes up? Naw...not in LA.

[SaxxonWoods]

Good strategy by the union. Undercut a bit and keep their jobs. Let the non-members get laid off. They may get a lot of new members that way too.

Then strike for more benefits to make up for the fact that they aren’t getting minimum wage.

Win-win-win-win.

[Mr. Peabody]

They want more hotels to be unionized I think.

[A CA Guy]

No tip, bye bye.

[immadashell]

The wage boost will go into effect in July for hotels with at least 300 rooms, expanding a year later to hotels with at least 150 rooms. The measure is expected to cover at least 40 hotels and, depending on the analysis, anywhere from 5,300 to 13,500 workers.

The Law of Unintended Consequences is about to be proved once again.

[VeniVidiVici]

No surprise. Didn’t unions get an exemption from ObamaCare too?

[BBell]

I would not put it past them. Good thinking.

[Maine Mariner]

It is disgusting. However, it is a brilliant strategy!
I had seen a few situations like this in the past but never on this scale. The union can go to an employer and say, support unionization of your workforce or at least don’t oppose it, and your wage costs will go down or rise slower
than your competition.

[exDemMom]

I bet the hotels will have no trouble finding illegals who are willing to be paid significantly lower than minimum wage, under the table.

[o-n-money]

They wanted to be Mexico City del Norte, and the’ve done it.
_______________________________________________________

California will also be renamed Newer Mexico.