Prop. 499 would increase Glendale hospitality worker wages

A pro-labor organization wants hospitality workers to earn higher salaries as Glendale becomes a bigger tourist destination.

The big picture: Glendale voters will weigh in on Proposition 499 this election, which would raise the minimum hourly wage to $20 — with annual increases of at least 3% — for hotel, convention center and event center employees.

• It would also set limits on the square footage housekeepers can clean in one shift without overtime pay and require hotels and event centers that charge service fees to turn over all fees to service workers.
• The initiative would require the city to establish a Department of Labor Standards to ensure local venues comply with the new rules.

State of play: A political action committee called Worker Power collected about 9,000 signatures to get the initiative in front of Glendale voters.

• Worker Power executive director Brendan Walsh told Axios the group targeted Glendale because "workers should share in the growth" the hospitality industry is seeing.

What they're saying: "The industry is booming and workers are living out of their cars. They're forced to decide between buying medicine or paying rent. The workers are struggling while the industry is thriving," Walsh said.

The other side: City leadership and business groups are ringing alarm bells about the initiative, saying it would deter future events from coming to town and force the city to spend at least $1 million on the new labor division.

• The city hired a firm to conduct an economic impact study, which found that in addition to the new spending, the proposition would likely require hotels and event venues to charge more to cover the higher wages, which could result in fewer people staying and dining — potentially costing the city a few million dollars in tax revenue.

Zoom in: Glendale City Manager Kevin Phelps told Axios he's most worried the initiative would apply only to his city, putting it at a "competitive disadvantage" compared with neighbors like Phoenix and Glendale.

• "Don't pick on the citizens of Glendale. They've worked really, really hard. We've made significant investments to attract hotels and to attract venues to our area, and we think this is going to have a chilling effect on that," Phelps said.

The intrigue: The ballot proposition notes that hotels and venues could get out of the minimum wage requirement, cleaning limits and other provisions if they enter into a collective bargaining agreement with a unionized workforce.

• "You're almost forcing a union to happen, so maybe you could negotiate away some of the really bad provisions of the initiative," Phelps said.

Walsh said that unionization is not the goal of the proposition and that the carve-out was made because unionized workforces have their own employment negotiations regulated by the National Labor Relations Board.

• He also said that the cost to the city would be "negligible" and that he does not believe the increased wages would deter events from coming to Glendale.