Thousands of LAX airline service workers, janitors and restaurant staff have seen their paychecks balloon under the city's "living wage" law while predictions that businesses would adapt to it by cutting jobs have not come true, according to a study released Thursday.

The four-year study by University of California economists found that Los Angeles' living wage ordinance raised pay for nearly 10,000 jobs -- 60 percent of them at LAX, said David Fairris, a professor of economics at UC Riverside and a study co-author. At the same time, companies subjected to the law trimmed just 112 positions, the study found.

The 1997 law -- one of the first in the country -- requires that employers with city contracts pay workers at least $10.03 an hour without health care or $8.78 with a $1.25 contribution to health-care benefits. Workers also must receive at least 12 paid days and 10 unpaid days off a year.

Maria Louisa Mosqueda used to earn $5.75 an hour until the law began applying to her LAX security company, AirServ, in 2000. Immediately, her pay shot up $2.50 an hour, making it easier for her family to pay its bills and ultimately buy a home in Bell, said Mosqueda, 56.

Additionally, she was able to take paid vacation to visit her sick father in Mexico, Mosqueda said.

"The living wage helped me to raise the standard of my life," said Mosqueda, whose company provides passenger assistance. "But it was not enough."

Mosqueda was referring to the fact that she and her family -- all American citizens, she noted -- still do not have health insurance. When her grown son, who also works for AirServ, recently underwent an appendectomy at Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center, the family footed a substantial part of the bill, with the county paying the remainder, she said.

"It's a sad situation," she said.

Fairris, the professor, agreed. The study found that the law did not prompt any companies to begin offering health insurance to their workers, although some used the $1.25 incentive to enhance existing plans, he said.

"You've got to provide more than the $1.25 offset, that's for sure," Fairris said.

The study authors are scheduled to present their findings today to the Los Angeles City Council, Fairris said.