Two hotel industry groups have filed suit in federal court to block a new Los Angeles law that requires a higher minimum wage at the city's larger hotels.
The lawsuit from the American Hotel and Lodging Assn. and the Asian American Hotel Owners Assn. contends that the City Council's decision to impose a $15.37 per hour minimum wage is preempted by federal labor law and therefore unenforceable, the Los Angeles Times reports.
"Under the guise of an ordinance purporting to require that a 'fair wage' be paid to hotel workers, the city has constructed, whether by design or consequence, an insidious mechanism that improperly aids the hotel workers’ union ... in its efforts to organize employees at all of the city’s hotels that have until now resisted unionization," the lawsuit states.
Under the law adopted by the City Council earlier this year, unionized hotels can be exempt from the wage if their employees agree to it through the collective bargaining process. Hotels that face severe financial hardships also can be exempted.
The suit is seeking to block the law from going into effect next summer. for hotels with at least 300 rooms. Hotels with at least 150 rooms will be subject to the law in 2016.
In its lawsuit, the hotel industry groups claim L.A.'s wage law establishes a minimum pay that is"far above the market rate" for hotels and the restaurants that operate inside them.
Mayor Eric Garcetti has proposed a city-wide hike in the minimum wage to $13.25 per hour. A coalition of labor groups has countered with a plan to raise the wage to $15, to match a voter-approved measure in San Francisco, which passed this fall