Los Angeles’ business image, already battered by high costs and other problems, will suffer further because of the City Council’s plan to require airport hotels to pay a “living wage,” business leaders and some economists said Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Although the ordinance would affect only 12 hotels, fears that it could be extended to other businesses could discourage employers from locating in Los Angeles, especially when neighboring cities and states already are more business friendly, they said.

“It’s toxic,” said David Fleming, incoming chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. “This council will do it at the drop of a hat if labor tells them to, and that’s the problem.”

The ordinance, endorsed by an 11-3 margin Wednesday, requires a second vote but is widely believed to be a fait accompli. It would, for the first time, extend the city’s living-wage rules to businesses not directly contracting with Los Angeles.

Proponents said the goal was to improve the lives of hotel workers and keep them out of poverty. Airport hotels would have to raise their minimum wage to $10.64, from the state-mandated $6.75. Hotels that reach collective bargaining agreements with workers would be exempt.

Janice Hahn, the council member who sponsored the measure, has portrayed it as an effort to help workers, not hurt the business climate. And one economist said the ordinance would have very little economic effect.

Read the full L.A. Times story

.(registration required)