EDITORIAL MUNICIPAL SOCIALISM `LIVING WAGE' FOR HOTEL WORKERS WILL INEVITABLY EXPAND CITYWIDE.

HOTEL workers cheered Wednesday when the Los Angeles City Council agreed to impose a ``living wage'' on a handful of hotels near Los Angeles International Airport.

How long will that exhilaration last when workers realize that, though they might see small bumps in their paychecks, this anti-business action could have dire impacts on their future moneymaking ability?

When the city's living-wage requirements are extended to hotels near LAX, a small group of workers will be guaranteed $10.33-an-hour pay at a minimum (or $9.08 an hour with health benefits), as opposed to the $7.50 that will be the state's minimum wage starting Jan. 1. That could have a larger effect of putting many people out of work or shutting off opportunities as hotels cut jobs, to afford the cost, and require the remaining employees to absorb the additional work.

Is that something to cheer about?

This kind of municipal socialism might be well-meaning, but it's ultimately bad for those it purports to help.

The City Council adopted a living-wage ordinance 10 years ago for firms that did business with the city. The rationale was that it wasn't mandatory: If companies didn't want to pay the living wage, they could just do without city contracts.

But this week's vote to extend the law has no similar rationale since it requires private businesses to comply (or move, one supposes). More ominously, it is inevitable that the council in its arrogance will eventually impose the living-wage ordinance citywide -- thereby affirming L.A.'s terrible reputation as anti-business.

Who will be cheering when L.A.'s workers find that the city has become a place of few jobs and opportunities?