When the Los Angeles City Council passed the so-called Olympic wage last year, airport worker Elisa Valencia almost immediately began charting her future.
Once her gradually escalating pay rate reached $30 an hour, at about the time the Los Angeles Olympics arrived in 2028, Valencia figured she’d be able to afford enough living space to bring her three teenage sons up from her native Mexico and reunite as a family. In the process, she would leave behind the single bedroom she has been renting in a house in South Los Angeles.
