Minimum wage hike in Los Angeles hotel industry has negative impacts
Los Angeles, California, passed a phased-in minimum wage hike ordinance on May 27, 2025. Nicknamed “Olympic Wage” in advance of the Olympics, minimum wages for the hotel industry will be set at $30 per hour by 2028. However, this move is already negatively impacting the people it was intended to help. Hours are being cut, hotel restaurants are being closed, and planned improvements are either being delayed or cancelled. The workers who are losing their jobs are the ones who the ordinance was supposed to help.
From Fox News:
HALA recently commissioned a study that found hotels have eliminated or expect to eliminate 6% of positions, roughly 650 jobs, since the Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance took effect in September 2025.
Mayor Bass signed the ordinance into law May 27, 2025, after it was approved by the Los Angeles City Council. The measure is often referred to as the “Olympic Wage” in reference to the sporting event being held in Los Angeles in 2028 and will raise pay for hotel and LAX airport workers up to $30 per hour by 2028.
The law has already resulted in a pay increase to $22.50 per hour in July 2025, and will continue to increase incrementally until it hits $30 in July 2028. Filla says she is urging elected officials from the city council to the mayor to make “amendments” to the ordinance to ease the burden on the hospitality industry.
“We are at the very beginning of the series of these increases and hundreds of hotel workers have already lost their jobs,” Filla said. “Even more are seeing their hours reduced. We’ve seen restaurant closures within hotels, parking is already getting more expensive, and improvements and the creation of new buildings altogether are being delayed or canceled. So taken together, these impacts should really sound alarm bells for our local policymakers.”
In many instances, the workers who lose their jobs are working-class or blue-collar individuals and Filla pointed out that many managers and general managers started off as cooks or dishwashers and advanced through executive training programs which now are less available due to financial shortfalls.
The study put out by HALA found that a significant number of the jobs lost have been labor-intensive positions like food and beverage, housekeeping, and parking.
Additional Reading:
Miller, A. M. (2026, March 7). ‘Utterly unaffordable’: Study reveals how deep blue city’s minimum wage law is ravaging key industry. Fox News. Link.
Yesterday I spoke with a socialist in Canada; today I spoke with a socialist in California. They both agreed the higher the minimum wage, the less the minimum wage was worth. The Californinian & I both worked when the minimum wage was under $2/hour; she agreed $2/hour bought a lot more then than $2/hour buys today. The Californinian ask what could be done; I replied she should stop voting for the demonrats. The Canadian was still getting over his shock when I said not all Vermonters like Sanders; as a lot of us in California don’t like Gavin the nuisance.
This is all that can be said about that!
What can I say, It’s Kalifornia..
We can always count on California D-rats to be complete and total idiots!
Eventually, as they slowly but surely run off everyone, they’ll have the same federal voting power as Wyoming and Alaska….