SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Supporters rallied at San Diego City Hall on Monday, pushing for a higher minimum wage in hotels, amusement parks and event centers.
“People who work hard deserve to earn enough to live in the city where they work,” said Sean Elo-Rivera, who represents San Diego City Council District 9.
To many, living in San Diego is paradise, but only if you can afford it, and a growing number of hospitality workers just aren’t making enough.
“Often times what ends up happening is families end up doubling up in a home or they live further and further away from work so they’re losing time with their family members,” said Elo-Rivera.
Business for Good Board Chair Emily Renda says she lives in an area with many hospitality workers forced to make tough decisions as the cost of living in San Diego surges.
“So my neighbors are either forcing to make choices either buying groceries, or buying medication or you know affording rent or having to live in their car,” said Emily Renda, Business for Good Board chair and local business owner.
San Diego city councilmember, Sean Elo-Rivera, is proposing a minimum wage increase for workers at hospitality employers, including hotels with at least 150 rooms, amusement parks and event centers, bumping the hourly wage up to twenty-five dollars per hour.
The proposal would phase in the hourly minimum wage over four years.
If approved, beginning July 1 of next year the minimum wage would be $21.06 and increase by roughly one dollar each year through 2030.
“We’re a family owned and operated water sport, bike rental company,” said Steve Pinard, Action Sports owner.
Action sports is located at the mission bay resort and contracted with them – meaning they’ll feel the financial impact of this minimum wage increase if it passes.
“So I’m gonna have to raise my minimum wage, to offset that I assume we would raise prices. If I raise prices they’re going to walk next door,” said Pinard.
Pinard says he feels like his family run boat rental company is being put in the same category as large corporations.
“In the summertime I hire a ton of, I call them kids, they’re coming from high school, college, a lot of them don’t have any work experience whatsoever, some of their parents drop them off, they’ve never had a job before. They don’t need a living wage. I mean they’re home to make some money in the summer,” said Pinard.
But Elo-Rivera says that’s not the case for most minimum wage workers in the hospitality industry.
“The overwhelming majority of people who are going to benefit from this are people who have been at their places of work for a really long time and work very, very hard and their work shouldn’t be trivialized as just something that anyone can do,” said Elo-Rivera.
The city council is set to vote on the proposal at Tuesday’s meeting.
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