Long Beach Hotel Worker Minimum Wage and Paid Sick Leave Ordinance

The city of Long Beach enacted a minimum wage ordinance (the MWO) that requires hotel employers within the geographic city limits to pay all hotel workers a minimum wage.1 The MWO also requires hotel employers to provide paid sick leave in a manner that differs from California’s paid sick leave requirements.

For more information on the MWO, you may visit the Long Beach Financial Management website. You may also call (562) 570-WAGE or (562) 570-9243, or email MinimumWage@longbeach.gov.

Coverage and Eligibility

A “Hotel” is a residential building that is designated or used for lodging and other related public services and contains 100 or more guest rooms or suites of rooms. “Hotel” also includes any contracted, leased, or sublet premises connected to or operated in conjunction with the building’s purpose, or providing services at the building. 2

A covered “hotel employer” under the MWO is any of the following:

• A person who owns, controls, or operates a hotel in the city of Long Beach;
• A person who owns, controls, or operates any contracted, leased, or sublet premises connected to or operated in conjunction with the hotel’s purpose; or
• A person, other than a hotel worker, who provides services at the hotel. 3

“Person” under the MWO means an individual, corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability company, business trust, estate, trust, association, joint venture, agency, instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity, whether domestic or foreign. 4

“Hotel Workers” entitled to the rights and protections of the MWO are any individual:

• Whose primary place of employment is at one or more hotels; and
• Who is employed directly by a hotel employer or by a person who has contracted with a hotel employer to provide services at a hotel. 5

Minimum Wage Rate

• As of July 1, 2026, the rate is $25 per hour.

Future hotel worker minimum wage rates are as follows:

• Beginning July 1, 2027, the rate is $28.00 per hour.
• Beginning July 1, 2028, the rate is $29.50 per hour.6

These rates cannot include, or be offset by, service charges, commissions, bonuses, tips, or gratuities.7

• The Long Beach hotel worker minimum wage is higher than either the California state minimum wage or federal minimum wage. You must pay the (higher) Long Beach hotel worker minimum wage to employees who are eligible for it.

Service Charges

In addition to the minimum wage, hotel employers must also pay the entirety of any “service charges” the hotel worker(s), which includes all separately-designated amounts, regardless of name or label, collected from a customer for service by hotel workers, or described in such a way that customers might reasonably believe that the amounts are for service.8 These charges include, but are not limited to, those described on receipts as "service charge," "table charge," "porterage charge," "automatic gratuity charge," "healthcare surcharge," "benefits surcharge," "hotel worker protection fee," "housekeeping fee," or similar language.9 Service charges shall not be paid to supervisory or managerial hotel workers.10

Hotel employers must pay service charges to hotel workers on the next payroll following the collection of an amount including, but not limited to, the following situations:

• Amounts collected for banquets or catered meetings shall be paid equally to all hotel worker(s) who actually work the banquet or catered meeting;
• Amounts collected for room service shall be paid to the hotel worker(s) who actually delivered the food and beverage associated with the charge; and
• Amounts collected for porterage service shall be paid to the hotel worker(s) who actually carry the baggage associated with the charge.11

Service charges must be paid to the hotel worker(s) even if the customer gives or leaves a tip or gratuity for the hotel worker(s).12

Paid Sick Leave

Hotel employers must provide at least five paid sick days per calendar year to every hotel worker.13 Hotel workers must accrue at least five-twelfths (5/12) of a day of paid sick leave for every full month in a calendar year the hotel worker is employed by the hotel employer.

• California’s state paid sick leave law requires employees to accrue five days of paid sick leave by the employee’s 200th day of employment. Because state law imposes a more beneficial accrual rate for employees, hotel employers may not use the MWO accrual rate.

Hotel workers may use their accrued sick leave as soon as it is accrued.14 Hotel employers may not require a certification of illness when a hotel worker requests to use their available, accrued sick leave.15

If a hotel worker has not used all of their accrued sick leave at the end of the calendar year, the hotel employer shall pay that hotel worker a lump sum payment equivalent to any remaining accrued, unused sick leave.16 Hotel workers shall be paid their normal daily compensation for each compensated day off.17

• If California and the MWO’s paid sick leave requirements differ, employers must follow the law that is the more beneficial to the employee unless otherwise specifically pre-empted by state law.

Retaliation

Hotel employers are prohibited from discharging, reducing compensation, or otherwise discriminating against any hotel workers who assert their rights under or use civil remedies to enforce the MWO.18

Enforcement

The MWO may be enforced through a civil action brought in the Superior Court of the State of California on an individual or as a class action lawsuit. A hotel worker who successfully claims a violation of the MWO may recover available legal and equitable remedies including but not limited to lost compensation, damages, reinstatement, injunctive relief, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.19

Waiver of Rights

No individual hotel worker(s) may waive their rights under the MWO. Hotel workers may waive any rights under the MWO only if the waiver is explicitly set forth in clear and unambiguous terms in a bona fide collective bargaining agreement.20

1. Long Beach Mun. Code sec. 5.48.020