LA businesses open new front in battle with unions, target receipts tax
The initiative is the latest salvo in a monthslong battle between business and labor that has focused on the city's minimum wage. In late May, the Los Angeles City Council approved a union-backed law to raise the minimum wage for tourism industry workers to $30 per hour by 2028, when Los Angeles is scheduled to host the Olympics.
Within days of that law being signed, a coalition of airline and hospitality industry companies filed a referendum to repeal the law. The L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress, backed by Delta and United Airlines as well as the American Hotel and Lodging Association, filed signatures late last month and is now waiting for word from the city clerk's office about whether it has qualified for the ballot.
Meanwhile, Unite Here Local 11, which represents many of the hospitality workers who stand to benefit from the new minimum wage law, went on offense against the business interests behind the referendum.
The group filed four initiative proposals last month: One would raise the minimum wage for all workers in the city to $30 per hour by July 2028, while others would require a public vote on the construction of large hotels, significant hotel expansions and 'event centers' like sports stadiums and impose new taxes and penalties on companies whose CEOs are paid more than 100 times what their median employee receives.
Backers of the gross receipts tax repeal measure, who include leaders of local chambers of commerce and other business organizations, see it as a way to push back against the new minimum wage law and Unite Here's initiative proposals, which business leaders say will hobble economic activity at a pivotal time.
The new minimum wage 'has an impact on every business,' said Stuart Waldman, one of the initiative's proponents and president of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association.
'Businesses are leaving in droves,' he added. 'They get to see what the cost is in Burbank. They get to see what the cost is in Santa Clarita. They get to see what the cost for doing business is in Texas. Not everyone can move out of California, but everyone can move out of L.A.'
After the city clerk approves the initiative for circulation, the campaign will need to gather approximately 140,000 signatures within 120 days. The initiative could appear on the ballot as early as June 2026.
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