Westgate Resorts raising staff minimum wage to $10 per hour

Westgate Resorts, which runs two properties in Las Vegas, announced today a companywide minimum wage increase to $10 per hour.

The increase is effective Jan. 1, and it doesn’t apply to commissioned and tipped employees or employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement, according to a Westgate statement.

Westgate representatives declined to say exactly how many people will receive pay increases, saying only that "thousands" of employees nationwide will be impacted.

A large concentration of those employees are resort operations team members, according to a Westgate spokesperson.

The company has about 12,000 total employees, according to another spokesperson.

Westgate said it doesn’t pay anyone at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour except commissioned or tipped workers. But it said in the statement that the increase was intended “to attract the very best talent in the hospitality industry” and provide a “high quality of life” for Westgate employees.

“We’re experiencing the best year in our history and I wanted to do something to show my gratitude for the employees who make that possible,” said Westgate CEO David Siegel in the statement. “The Westgate family includes some of the most talented professionals in the industry and it’s important that we reward our current employees and continue to attract the best and the brightest in the future.”

Siegel’s companytook over the former LVH on Paradise Road this summer and rebranded it Westgate Las Vegas. The company also operates the Westgate Flamingo Bay in Las Vegas.

Minimum wage increases are gaining traction across the country, most notably in Seattle, where officials approved a plan in June to raise their city’s minimum wage to $15 hour over the next several years. That would make Seattle’s minimum wage the highest in the country.

Nationally, President Barack Obama has called upon Congress to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. Vice President Joe Biden championed the cause at a restaurant in Las Vegas just last week.

Business

Sun reporter Pashtana Usufzy contributed to this report.

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