By Sean Elo-Rivera
SAN DIEGO — Our city made history on Tuesday, Sept. 16. With the passage of the Hospitality Minimum Wage Ordinance, our city has chosen to stand with workers over corporate greed. This is what it means to make San Diego work for San Diegans: standing with the people who clean the rooms, staff the events, and welcome millions of visitors every year, and to affirm that no one who works full time should live in poverty.
This ordinance raises the minimum wage for hotel, janitorial, event center, and tourism workers to $25 per hour, with annual cost-of-living adjustments to ensure that pay keeps pace with San Diego’s realities. It is a modest but necessary step forward in a city where the cost of housing, childcare, and groceries have soared while too many workers’ wages have remained stagnant.
The choice before us was clear: billion-dollar corporations spending millions to preserve the status quo — or working people demanding fairness and dignity. The San Diego City Council chose workers.
This victory belongs to the housekeepers, cooks, janitors, servers, stagehands, and event staff who told workers who told their stories and refused to back down. It belongs to the unions and community organizations who organized with courage, the small businesses who stood with their neighbors, and every San Diegan who said “no more” to an economy that extracts wealth while families struggle to survive.
The fight is not over. The corporations that opposed this ordinance will continue to push back. But Tuesday’s vote sends a clear message: San Diego will not be a city that thrives on the backs of underpaid workers. We will be a city that values dignity, fairness, and shared prosperity.
I am deeply grateful to my colleagues on the City Council, to the Mayor, to our labor and community partners, and most of all to the workers who make San Diego work. This is your victory.
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Sean Elo-Rivera is the District 9 representative on the San Diego City Council and the prime sponsor of the Hospitality Minimum Wage Ordinance. He is a member of the Jewish Community.