By Jorge Casuso
July 1, 2025 -- Santa Monica's local minimum wage will increase by 54 cents on Wednesday to $17.81 per hour, but a much larger hike for local hotel workers has been put on hold.
Approved in 2016, the City's wage law ties the annual increases for workers at local hotels to those of hotel workers in Los Angeles, who were set to see their wages rise from $20.32 to $22.50 per hour.
But the LA City increase given final approval on May 27 has been paused after a coalition of hospitality and tourism groups submitted signatures on Friday for a referendum to overturn the wage hike, according to MyNewsLA.
LA's Interim City Clerk Petty Santos confirmed she "received the signed petitions" with more than 140,000 signatures, the news site reported.
Her office "will conduct an initial review to determine whether the number of valid signatures meets the 92,998 required" to place a referendum on the June 2026 ballot.
The wage ordinance -- which raises the minumum wage to $30 per hour in 2028 -- is “suspended and will not take effect while the petition is being reviewed,” Santos said, according to MyNewsLA.
If the LA County Registrar determines the measure did not receive the necessary valid signatures, the LA law would kick in, triggering Santa Monica's equivalent wage hike.
"Pursuant to Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.36.015(b)(2), the hourly wage for hotel workers in the City shall match the hourly wage set for hotel workers in the City of Los Angeles," according to the latest minimum wage update on the City's website.
The update notes that on May 12, the City of Los Angeles "announced that the hourly wage for hotel workers effective July 1, 2025 will be $21.01."
On May 14, the Los Angeles City Council "voted to approve a proposal to require a $22.50 minimum hourly wage for hotel workers" effective July 1.
"The City of Los Angeles’s ordinance was signed by Mayor Bass on May 27, 2025, thus increasing the City of Santa Monica’s hotel worker living wage to $22.50 effective July 1, 2025," the update states.
West Hollywood -- the only other California City with a minimum wage for hotel employees -- will raise the rate to $20.22 per hour on Wednesday, according to HRCalifornia, a website created by the California Chamber of Commerce.
Santa Monica's local minimum wage, excluding hotel workers, "increases annually by the published Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Works (CPI-W) for the Los Angeles metropolitan area," City officials said.
While the minimum wage applies to local businesses of any size, those with 25 or fewer employees must provide 40 hours of sick leave, while those with more than 26 employees must provide 72 hours of sick leave.
Santa Monica is one of ten California cities that will raise its local minimum wage on Wednesday, according to HRCalifornia.
Emeryville has the highest minumum wage in the State at $19.90 per hour, followed by San Francisco and Berkeley at $19.18 an hour; all three cities are in the San Francisco Bay area.
"Although Malibu usually increases their local minimum wage on July 1, the Malibu City Council approved a one-year suspension of their scheduled minimum wage increase so Malibu’s local minimum wage will remain at $17.27 per hour," according to HR California.
