(City News Service) -- Hospitality workers in the city of San Diego received a pay raise as of Jily 1st, as the city's Hospitality Minimum Wage Ordinance went into effect.
Approved by the San Diego City Council last year, the ordinance raises the minimum wage for some hospitality workers in the city to $25 an hour, phased in over several years, the higher wage is divided between workers at event centers ($21.06per hour in 2026, $22 in 2027, $23 in 2028, $24 in 2029 and finally $25 in 2030) and those in hotels and amusement parks ($19 in 2026, $20.50 in 2027, $22 in 228, $23.50 in 2029 and $25 in 2030). The pay increases will go into effect every July 1.
The measure affects 103 hotels, around 27% of the city's 385 hotels,motels and bed-and-breakfast businesses. Opposition to the increase came from owners of businesses of all sizes -- from multinational hotel chains to small sports rental companies.
Not every entity has to pay the higher wages. San Diego State University, owned by the state of California, is exempt for Viejas Arena and the Cal Coast Credit Union Amphitheater. The San Diego Zoo as well is exempt from the measure, but SeaWorld San Diego is not.
The minimum wage for all other workers in San Diego is $17.75 an hour, which took effect Jan. 1, 2026. The city's Earned Sick Leave and Minimum Wage Ordinance was approved by voters in 2016, and the minimum wage in San Diego has increased annually since 2019, with each increase tied to the prior year's cost-of-living increase, as measured by the Consumer Price Index.
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 without children needs to earn $32.88 per hour in the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad Metropolitan Area to support themselves while working full-time. A two-adult and one-child household would need to earn $50.97 per hour by the same calculator.
(Photo c.e. albert)