SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The San Diego City Council's Select Committee on Addressing Cost of Living unanimously passed a proposal Wednesday to raise the minimum wage of hospitality workers in the city to $25 an hour.
The proposal will return to staff in Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera's office, who will draft an ordinance to present to the full City Council later this year. Elo-Rivera, the chair of the select committee, proposed the pay rise for those in San Diego's tourism industry.
"This is not radical, this is what basic dignity demands," he said before denouncing comments from some of the city's largest businesses that such a proposal would cost tens of thousands of jobs. "We've heard these scare tactics before. Every time they say the sky will fall and every time they are wrong."
NEW: $25 per hour minimum wage proposal in San Diego for tourism/hospitality workers passes in a city committee (the Select Committee on Addressing Cost of Living).
— Melissa Mecija (@MelissaMecija) June 25, 2025
The full council still needs to address the proposal before any ordinance is approved. @10News
If the ordinance makes its way through the council, it would include hospitality workers at amusement parks, event centers, hotels with at least 150 rooms and zoos. Elo-Rivera said it follows a pattern Los Angeles and Long Beach have undertaken to raise wages before the 2028 Olympic Games.
Many of those from the business community disagreed with the proposal, including Chris Cate, president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and a former city councilman.
"San Diego is an expensive city to live in," he acknowledged. "This will not make it easier to afford to live in San Diego."
A report from the city's Independent Budget Analyst's office offered a middle ground. The non-partisan office found that minimum wage increases had not had a marked impact on several Californian cities' transient occupancy taxes (a hotel tax), but raising the minimum wage to $25 per hour could both benefit workers and cause large businesses such as hotels to cut employee hours and services offered.
Since the council adopted the Earned Sick Leave and Minimum Wage Ordinance in 2016, minimum wage within the city's boundaries has increased from $10.50 to $17.25 -- higher than California's $16.50 hourly rate and far higher than the nation's $7.25 per hour mark.
However, the cost of living in San Diego has increased independently of the minimum wage. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator, a single person would need to earn $30.71 per hour in San Diego County to support themselves while working full-time. A two-adult and one-child household would need to earn $49.13 per hour by the same calculator.
Emily Renda, a businesswoman and boardmember of Business For Good San Diego, said many of her neighbors worked full time jobs and still struggled to make ends meet.
"$25 an hour is the bare minimum we should be paying, and this is a progressive step forward for our city," she said.
The proposal claimed the hospitality industry is given ample financial support from the city and would be able to support its workers. Among this support is $62 million for the San Diego Tourism Marketing District, a "zoo tax" property tax assessment akin to subsidizing the San Diego Zoo by nearly $21 million annually, and no additional charge for public amenities.
A beloved San Diego institution balked at the potential costs.
"The Padres are proud to be a major economic contributor and a committed community partner," said Caroline Perry, chief operating officer of the San Diego Padres. "We pay the highest mandated wage in Major League Baseball through the city's Living Wage Ordinance, which adjusts annually for inflation.
"We believe in fair, competitive wages, but this proposal is too extreme. It would drive up the cost of living, make it harder for San Diegans to attend games, and hurt the local businesses that rely on Petco Park. We urge the City Council to reject it."
The Padres broke their single-season franchise attendance record in 2024, drawing 3,314,593 fans to Petco Park. The franchise is valued at $1.95 billion, more than triple what the late Peter Seidler paid for the team in 2012, according to Forbes.
"Being San Diego's team means standing with San Diegans, not against them," Elo-Rivera said.
Councilman Henry Foster III noted $25 an hour equates to around $52,000 a year, and said while that was not yet a livable wage in San Diego, the move made by the select committee on Wednesday was common sense.
Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert also supported the motion.
"Big corporations on our waterfront are not small businesses," she said. "They are doing fine, they can pay a living wage."
She did raise issue with nonprofits such as the San Diego Zoo and smaller businesses in the hospitality industry being put in a difficult position, urging a phased in approach.
If passed as written, the pay rise would go into effect on January 1, 2026.
Public comment saw more than 80 speakers, including Nate Fairman, business manager and financial secretary of the IBEW Local 465, who sang a San Diego version of the classic union protest song "Which Side Are You On?"
"Are you on the side of the workers? Or on the side of the bosses?" he said. "If you don't stand with the workers, you are nothing more than a scab for the hoteliers."
Brigette Browning, head of the San Diego Labor Council and UniteHERE! Local 30, said it was hypocritical for opponents to spend money on lobbyists but not on supporting workers.
Clayton Fowler, public affairs manager of the Downtown San Diego Partnership, urged caution by the council, saying thousands of jobs and the health of the downtown business environment were at stake.
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