Los Angeles hotel owners say the city’s new hotel-worker wage law is already reshaping their bottom lines, and not in a way they like. A new survey commissioned by the Hotel Association of Los Angeles points to job cuts, reduced hours, and possible closures of on-site restaurants and gift shops at major properties. Union leaders and labor researchers are pushing back hard, arguing the industry is crying wolf while workers finally see pay inch toward a living wage.
Survey Finds Job Cuts, Shorter Shifts And Shuttered Shops
The association’s 22-page report, based on a survey of 92 hotels, found that respondents reported eliminating or expecting to lose about 6% of positions, equal to roughly 650 jobs, and that about 62% planned to reduce staff hours in 2026. Fourteen respondents said they expect to close hotel restaurants, and half said they were likely to shutter on-site outlets such as gift shops. Parking operators also signaled plans to raise fees to cover higher payroll costs. City News Service reported the findings.
What The Law Requires
The concerns stem from the city’s Living Wage and Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance, which phases hotel minimum pay up to $30 an hour by July 1, 2028, as it ramps in. The rules apply to hotels with 60 or more guest rooms inside Los Angeles, and the ordinance also adds expanded housekeeping training, along with a health-benefit payment for employers that do not provide coverage. The schedule and requirements are laid out by the city’s wage office and were widely reported when the council advanced the package; see Wages LA and reporting from the Los Angeles Times.
Industry Asks City Hall To Hit Pause
Jackie Filla, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of Los Angeles, said the group commissioned the survey to document early impacts and urged Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council to repeal or amend the ordinance and to redouble efforts to promote tourism. “We are just looking at the first phase... For hotels, the most expensive increase actually takes place in July,” Filla told City News Service, according to the association’s account. MyNewsLA published the interview and the report’s key findings.
Union Fires Back Over ‘Absurd’ Claims
Unite Here Local 11 co-president Kurt Petersen rejected the association’s framing, calling the assertion that a $22.50 floor was “destroying” the industry “absurd” and arguing that higher pay helps stabilize the workforce. The union said its own data show employees are working more hours and that upcoming mega-events should lift demand across the region. Those comments were included in the City News Service reporting on the association’s release. City News Service noted the union’s response.
Tourism Jitters, Confusing Data, And A Bigger Wage Debate
Economists at LAEDC say tourism recovered after the pandemic but showed a small contraction in 2025 amid wildfires, immigration-policy shifts, and other shocks, and the agency’s 2026 forecast warns that the sector’s momentum is uneven. Labor researchers caution that causation is complex. The UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found that California’s recent $20 fast-food wage produced higher pay with little net job loss, while other analyses have reached different conclusions. Saba Waheed of the UCLA Labor Center told reporters that more rigorous, sector-specific analysis is needed to separate the ordinance’s effects from broader demand shifts. LAEDC and the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment have published recent analyses referenced in the debate.
What Comes Next For LA’s Hotel Scene
Hotels say they will be watching the ordinance’s next scheduled increases, including the bump slated for July 2026, and will adjust staffing, pricing, and capital plans as needed. Some developers and owners have already signaled they may shift projects in response. Industry trade groups are pressing for changes while unions defend the living-wage floor as a long-term stabilizer for hospitality workers, leaving city leaders to weigh competing claims as tourism recovers ahead of major events. One developer publicly killed a planned hotel expansion after the council vote, according to the Commercial Observer.
