A throng of San Diego hotel and service workers, backed by local labor unions, rallied together on Wednesday to push for a citywide $25 minimum wage for their industry alone.
Hundreds of union members marched to San Diego City Hall as part of a campaign to raise their hourly pay from $16.85 to $25 an hour, a 50 percent increase. A coalition of three labor unions organized the rally to convince the city council to enact a proposed ordinance that would raise the starting pay for hotel workers, as well as janitorial staff and security personnel.
The draft ordinance, or San Diego Service Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance, specifically targets lower-paid service workers employed by hotels, tech and biotech companies, and convention and sports facilities.
Rally organizers argue the city’s hourly pay — ranging from the current minimum wage to $28 for hotel workers — is not enough.
“Twenty-five dollars an hour is still hard to live on in San Diego,” said California Labor Federation chief officer Lorena Gonzalez, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“We know we are asking for something that barely, people who are working 40 hours a week could even get by on. This is not unreasonable,” she continued. “It is time that the tourism industry, who has always benefited off of public money and the public infrastructure and straight-out cash for promoting them out in the world, give back to the workers. I want you to know that California’s unions, which I am proud to lead . . . stand shoulder and shoulder with you.”
Wednesday afternoon’s rally was led by the service-industry union, Unite Here; the janitors’ union, SEIU-United Services Workers West; and the stagehands’ union, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
Another union leader, Unite Here Local 30 president Brigette Browning, said the next step is to get the legislation sponsored by a council member, who can then advance the ordinance to a hearing. Browning told the Union-Tribune she hopes the council will hear the matter as soon as this summer, meaning the legislation can potentially be enacted by January 1.
The unions’ wage demands came one month after California raised the minimum wage for fast-food workers from $15.50 to $20 per hour. The new starting wage went into effect April 1.
Since then, businesses and consumers alike can feel the economic consequences. Menu prices at Chipotle, for example, rose 6 to 7 percent in the first week of April compared to the same time last year across the fast-food brand’s 500 California restaurants, according to the Wall Street Journal. Likewise, Chick-fil-A saw its prices increase 10.6 percent on average in California since mid-February.
Other chains negatively impacted by the wage increase include McDonald’s, Domino’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Jack in the Box, and Shake Shack.
Prior to the wage hike, California restaurants, particularly pizza chains, began laying off delivery drivers and farming out deliveries to third-party apps, the Journal reported in late March. Others considered raising food prices, slowing hiring, shaving employee hours, and pausing expansion plans or expanding in other states instead, among other actions.
Meanwhile, the majority of California healthcare workers will earn $23 an hour starting June 1 and gradually get paid $25 over the next four years. The legislation, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in October, increased wages for employees in the healthcare industry up to 30 percent.
California’s overall minimum wage is now $16 per hour, up from $15.50 last year.