A referendum effort to block a Los Angeles city ordinance that will gradually raise the minimum wage for hotel and airport workers to $30 an hour fell short when the city clerk certified it as insufficient, allowing the measure to take effect as planned.
City Clerk Petty Santos announced the decision in a press release dated Sept. 8, stating that proponents of the referendum against Ordinance No. 188610 submitted 140,774 signatures but that only 84,007 were deemed valid after verification. The petition required at least 92,998 valid signatures to qualify, according to city charter rules. Of the total, 56,767 signatures were found invalid, including 2,339 duplicates and those with other challenges such as mismatched addresses or incomplete information, while 17,082 were withdrawn following 117,607 withdrawal requests.
The ordinance, approved by the Los Angeles City Council in late May 2025, mandates phased wage increases for employees at hotels with more than 60 rooms as well as workers at certain airport concessions. It sets the minimum hourly wage at $22.50 starting July 1, 2025, rising to $25 in July 2026, $27.50 in 2027, and $30 in 2028.
Employers who do not provide health benefits must pay an additional amount. The measure also includes provisions for worker training.
Proponents of the referendum, led by business groups including hoteliers and airport operators, argued that the hikes could lead to job losses and business closures amid economic pressures.
“The insane $30/h airport/hotel minimum wage [will] destroy jobs,” Houman David Hemmati, an ophthalmologist and commentator, wrote on X in response to the certification.
Hemmati suggested that the signatures were verified in an overly strict manner. He drew a parallel to a 2022 recall attempt against Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, where more than 20 percent of signatures were invalidated.
The city clerk did not respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office, responsible for verifying the signatures, detailed the results in a Sept. 5 letter to City Clerk Election Division Manager Jinny Pak. The office confirmed that the 140,774 signatures were examined, with challenges including 249 out-of-county addresses, 6,898 different addresses, and 18,054 signers who were not registered voters, among other issues.
Under the city charter, the ordinance is now effective as of Sept. 8, as the suspension that was in place during the referendum review has been lifted.
Labor organizations that pushed for the wage hikes celebrated the outcome as a win for workers ahead of the 2028 Olympics, when Los Angeles expects a surge in hospitality demand.
“Despite millions spent by companies like Delta, United, and the American Hotel and Lodging Association, a full signature count by the Los Angeles County Registrar found that the referendum campaign did not meet the qualifications to be placed on the ballot,” Defend the Living Wage LA wrote in a statement. “This historic victory wouldn’t have been possible without the record of more than 120,000 Angelenos who submitted forms to revoke their signatures on the referendum petition when they learned the petition would actually upend the Olympic Wage.”
