> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The rise and fall of Santa Monica’s living wage - URL: https://www.smdp.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-santa-monicas-living-wage/ - Published: 2002-11-02T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:50:29.000Z - Author: Andrew Fixmer - Tags: local, Downtown, #archive-import *Housekeeper fights for higher wages* Yolanda Orejel risked everything when she packed her bags and left her hometown in Mexico in search of a better life in Los Angeles. But 20 years later, Orejel finds herself living in nearly the same conditions that she so desperately was trying to escape. “I can eat a little better and I have nicer clothes,” she said through an interpreter. “But otherwise there aren’t many things that are different.” Orejel, a housekeeper at the Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel, said she needs Santa Monica’s proposed living wage ordinance to pass if she is to move out of her single-room apartment in downtown Los Angeles that she shares with her two teenage sons. The single mother’s $200 weekly salary (after taxes) affords her the $450 monthly rent on her apartment. After that, there is barely enough left to cover her bills. Orejel, 35, said she has tried to take on second jobs, but when she returns home after cleaning rooms all day, she is so tired she barely has the strength to make dinner. To help lift the estimated 2,000 Santa Monica workers like Orejel out of poverty, the city council approved an ordinance last year requiring businesses near the coast that make more than $5 million in annual revenue pay their employees between $10.50 and $12.25 an hour, depending on whether health benefits are provided. Opponents of the ordinance have asked voters to decide Nov. 5 whether to enact the living wage ordinance, which is known as Measure JJ. About six months ago Orejel joined the fight for the measure, and for the past week every day after work she drives herself to the campaign headquarters of Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism, which is campaigning in support of the measure. Once there, she tirelessly stuffs envelopes and walks neighborhoods with other activists, hoping to drum up enough support for a law that she thinks is critical to making life better. She dreams of sending her sons to college and of saving enough money to buy a house some day. But in the short term, she wants to get off the state’s MediCal program and be less dependent on subsidies. > “It’s not just about a better quality of life,” > “It’s not just about a better quality of life. It’s about improving everything.” — she said. — YOLANDA OREJEL Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel housekeeper > “It’s about improving everything.” Orejel comes from Michoacan, a mid-sized city about 250 miles northwest of Mexico City. Growing up, her father was a construction worker and her mother picked strawberries. Finding work in Michoacan was difficult, and the jobs that were available paid so little that Orejel said it wasn’t enough to buy food. So when she turned 17, she came to Los Angeles looking for opportunity. But once here, she ºfound the stories about how easy it is to find a job and how much better the pay is in America overstated. She struggled to find work, and ended up peddling clothes on the street for many years. Two years ago, finding herself unemployed during one of the country’s most prosperous times, the state found Orejel a job cleaning rooms at the Doubletree. While she is grateful for her job, she says housekeepers in other areas of Los Angeles are not required to clean as many rooms as she is and they are paid better. When the tourism industry took a nose dive after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, hotels eliminated dozens of entry-level positions. That’s when Orejel said her workload was increased from the nine suites she used to clean to the 14 she’s charged with today. And economists have said if Measure JJ is enacted there will be between 180 and 200 low-income jobs lost at hotels and other businesses throughout the city. Orejel said she knows she could be one of them but it’s worth the risk if the living wage ordinance helps her and others achieve a better life. “I’m terrified I could lose my job,” she said. “That’s a very real possibility.” When asked what she would say to a fellow co-worker who lost their job if the living wage was enacted, Orejel appeared baffled. “I would be without words,” she said. “I don’t know what I would say to them.” But Orejel said she knew what she would ask an owner of a business that would be affected by the living wage. She said she would want to know why they pay their workers so little when they make so much money. “And I would tell them how much better they can make their workers’ lives and how much better off everyone will be if JJ passes,” she said. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/110202-02_01.jpg) Yolanda Orejel, a Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel housekeeper, places labels on door hangers before walking door to door Friday campaigning for Measure JJ. (Photo: Andrew H. Fixmer/Daily Press) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/110202-02_02.jpg) Jack De Nicola, general manager of The Lobster, says the proposed living wage unfairly targets his restaurant and will hurt his bottom line. (Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 2, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110202.pdf?ref=smdp.com)