Committee approves amended hotel-worker wage package, delays health benefits start and narrows training rule

The Los Angeles City Economic Development and Jobs Committee on Tuesday received and filed reports from the Chief Legislative Analyst, Bureau of Contract Administration and Los Angeles World Airports and asked the city attorney to amend the draft hotel-worker ordinance to delay the start of employer-provided health benefits and to limit a housekeeping training requirement to hotels with 60 or more rooms.

The committee, chaired by Councilmember Hugo Price, voted 3-1 (one member absent) to approve the package as amended and instructed the CLA to return a six-month report on the ordinance’s effects on the tourism industry, including available data on business closures, job losses, hardship-exemption applications and transient-occupancy-tax projections.

The action sends an amended draft back to full City Council for consideration. The committee’s motion, introduced by Price, asked the city attorney to change the health-benefits start date in the draft ordinance from July 1, 2025, to Jan. 1, 2026, and to revise the ordinance’s definition of “hotel” so that certain training requirements apply only to properties with 60 or more rooms.

Why this matters: The ordinance—often described in public…