Los Angeles Minimum Wage in 2026: Rates, Sick Leave and Unpaid Pay

What is the Los Angeles minimum wage in 2026?

Inside the City of Los Angeles, the minimum wage is $18.42 an hour starting July 1, 2026. It applies to any employee who works at least two hours in a week within city limits, full-time, part-time or temporary, and regardless of immigration status.

What counts is where the work happens, not where you live or where the company is based. California law treats any applicable local minimum wage as the legal minimum, and paying less is unlawful (Labor Code section 1197). If you work in another city, its own minimum wage applies if it is higher than the state rate.

How does the city set its minimum wage each year?

The rate is adjusted every July 1 to track inflation, using the Los Angeles-area CPI-W, the price index the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes for urban wage earners and clerical workers. The Office of Wage Standards announces the new figure on February 1 and posts it on its website.

The history matters for back-pay claims. If you were underpaid across several years, each period is measured against the rate in effect at the time.

What is the minimum wage for Los Angeles hotel workers?

The Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance covers hotels in the city with 60 or more guest rooms, and hotels with 50 or more rooms in the Airport Hospitality Enhancement Zone. Through June 30, 2027, the rate is $25.00 an hour in cash wages plus a $4.25 hourly health benefit payment. The published schedule rises to $25.50 plus $6.00 on July 1, 2027.

If the hotel does not provide health benefits, the health payment must be added to the hourly wage. The schedule was revised by an amendment the city approved on May 26, 2026 (Ordinance 188944), so check the Office of Wage Standards chart before relying on later figures.

Hotel workers have an extra step before a complaint or lawsuit. The worker or a representative must first give the employer written notice of the provisions violated and the supporting facts, and the employer then has 30 days to cure (LAMC section 188.05 B). A written demand that names the ordinance and the facts can serve as that notice.

How much paid sick leave do Los Angeles workers get?

The city ordinance requires 48 hours of paid sick leave a year, more than the state baseline. The Office of Wage Standards says the state's 2024 sick leave law (SB 616) does not override the city's stricter rules. Key points:

• Coverage: employees who work at least two hours a week in the city for the same employer for 30 days or more within a year, at businesses of any size.
• Amount: 48 hours given up front each year, or 1 hour earned for every 30 hours worked.
• Carryover: unused hours roll over, and the employer may cap the total at no less than 72 hours.
• Use: from the 90th day of employment, for yourself, a family member or anyone related by blood or affinity. The employer may limit use to 48 hours a year.
• At separation: unused sick leave need not be paid out, but it is reinstated if you are rehired within a year.

Example: adding up a minimum wage shortfall

Example (hypothetical): a cashier at a Koreatown market kept earning $17.87 an hour after July 1, 2026. She worked 30 hours a week for 12 weeks before noticing.

The wages are only part of the claim. LAMC section 188.07 adds a penalty of up to $120 for each day the violation continued, payable to the worker, and state law allows interest. The exact penalty is set by the city or a court, so a demand letter should state the wage amount and reserve the penalties.

What can you recover for unpaid Los Angeles minimum wage?

• Back wages and sick pay. The difference between what you were paid and the local minimum, plus any sick time benefits withheld (LAMC section 188.07).
• Daily penalties. Up to $120 per day per employee for each day the violation continued.
• Attorney fees. A worker who wins a civil action is awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs.
• State law claims. Labor Code section 1194 lets an employee paid below the legal minimum wage sue for the unpaid balance with interest, fees and costs. Whether this and other state-law remedies reach a shortfall measured only against a city or county rate is a question to raise with a lawyer.
• Retaliation remedies. Firing or cutting hours within 90 days of asserting your rights is presumed retaliatory under LAMC section 188.04, and the city remedy includes reinstatement and tripling of wages and penalties. Labor Code section 98.6 adds a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per employee for each violation.

The city also requires employers to keep payroll records for four years and to post the annual wage and sick leave notice (LAMC section 188.03). For retaliation in more depth, see our guide to workplace retaliation letters.

How to recover unpaid local minimum wage

1. Confirm where you worked. The Office of Wage Standards has a city boundary checker, and DCBA covers unincorporated county areas.
2. Collect pay records. Gather pay stubs, schedules, time records and bank deposits. Our guide to pay stub violations explains what each stub must show.
3. Calculate the gap. Multiply the shortfall per hour by the hours worked in each rate period, and add any sick pay that was refused.
4. Send a written demand. Ask for the unpaid amount, a corrected rate going forward and a reply date.
5. File a complaint if needed. City workers can file with the Office of Wage Standards at 1-844-WAGESLA; county workers can contact DCBA's Office of Labor Equity at 800-593-8222; state claims go to the Labor Commissioner. The Office of Wage Standards says it does not ask about immigration status.
6. Consider court. The city ordinance allows a civil action; our unpaid wages demand letter guide covers state wage claims.

When an attorney-written Los Angeles wage demand makes sense

A local minimum wage claim can look small per hour and still grow once several workers, several rate years, sick leave and daily penalties are counted. Getting the math and the paperwork right matters most when the shortfall spans more than one July 1 increase, when hours worked inside and outside city limits are mixed, when a hotel's health payment is in dispute and the 30-day notice applies, or when you are worried about retaliation for speaking up.

Through Talk to My Lawyer, a licensed California attorney writes your letter from your pay stubs, schedules and work location, applies the correct city, county or state rate for each period, and sends it on your behalf. Deadlines, and the choice between an agency complaint and a lawsuit, are questions to take to a lawyer along with your facts.