On the 14th of last month, I wrote about the City of Los Angles imposing a living wage requirement on Century Corridor hotels. This was the first time in California that a living wage was not directly related to a government contract.

It should come as no surprise that with the ordinance coming into effect on the 30th of this month, the first round of firings have begun. The Four Points Sheraton let 12 workers go, some of who have been employed for 20 years.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn who apparently never saw an econ class worth taking said, “I was just outraged that they would do this to these workers”.

The outrage is that the hotels didn’t do this, the City did. The City was warned that the hotels still had to compete with hotels only a block away that weren’t subjected to this ordinance and that to stay competitive, they would have to make changes. They did.

This is what happens when socialism meets capitalism – it’s the workers that are hurt, never the politicians. They can force the hotels to pay workers a certain rate (which is wrong), but they can’t force (at least not yet) the hotels to employ the workers.

Until the City butted in, the workers had jobs, at legal minimum wage – or more. Now they have no job (and those who remain will have to work harder to pick up the slack) and will be lucky to land an equivalent job at the same pay they had before the City got involved. I’m not sure Janice should expect Christmas cards from the now unemployed workers.