A phased-in minimum wage hike in Los Angeles that will mandate up to $30 per hour for hotel workers, signed into law by mayor Karen Bass, is already causing problems for the hotel industry and putting the squeeze on the working-class demographic that minimum wage laws are purportedly intended to help.

“The bottom line is the city of Los Angeles has forced a wage and benefits package on hotels that is utterly unaffordable at a time when Californians and Americans are laser focused on affordability,” Hotel Association of Los Angeles (HALA) President Dr. Jackie Filla told Fox News Digital in an interview this week. 

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. 

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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.

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The study also found that 62% of hotels expect staff hours to decrease in 2026, with three-quarters anticipating reductions of at least 10%.

The impact extends beyond hotel payrolls to subcontractors operating on hotel properties, according to HALA, and hotels reported that two-thirds of third-party providers plan to raise prices to offset wage increases, and one in five plan to cancel hotel contracts altogether.

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“Unlike typical layoffs that are occurring in other industries right now, these job losses, and it is 6% of jobs lost in a short period of time, were entirely policy-driven, caused by the mayor and city council,” Filla said. “And what is especially troubling about this is it didn’t have to happen. Hotels actually want to maintain and grow their workforce heading into these major events, but these dramatic cost increases. Just make that impossible.“

Fox News Digital reached out to Bass’s office for comment.

With so many new apartments hitting the market in recent years, landlords across metro Denver are in an incentives arms race to attract new tenants. A month or two of free rent is almost a given, with more buildings offering three to four months. Fees are being discounted or eliminated, and gift cards for new tenants moving in are a common perk.

But the akin Golden Triangle, a newer 98-unit luxury apartment development at 955 Bannock St. in Denver, has pushed concessions to another level. In a sweepstakes, it recently awarded one tenant a $50,000 cash grand prize and the runner-up a year of free rent.

“We wanted to try something new. What we found, more than we thought we would, is that the sweepstakes brought the residents in these buildings together as a community. Management and staff got to know them,” said Rhys Duggan, president and CEO of Revesco Properties, which developed the building in partnership with Alpine Investments.

Duggan said the Revesco team initially considered providing a $100,000 grand prize, but talked themselves down. The sweepstakes, which started in late October, attracted 364 entries. Compared to heading up to Black Hawk or buying a lotto ticket, the odds of winning were much higher, with no money out of pocket required to enter.

Resident Claire Scobee, winner of the $50,000 grand prize, said she planned to save most of the money — after splurging on a shopping spree with her niece, according to a news release by Revesco.

“Winning was a complete surprise and feels like a once-in-a-lifetime blessing,” Scobee said. “I’m most excited to treat my family, especially my niece, and spend a fun day together making memories.”

The second prize winner, Lisa Cordova, said winning a year’s worth of free rent would allow her to focus on a project she has long wanted to do but couldn’t while working full-time.

“It gives me the momentum to finally follow through on a creative endeavor I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” Cordova said.

Duggan said the Golden Triangle and River North submarkets have seen a lot of supply come online in a short amount of time, which has made it hard to fill up new apartment buildings.

Revesco Properties and Alpine Investments opened the doors on the akin Tennyson at 4560 N. Tennyson a few months before the akin Golden Triangle in early 2025. The akin Tennyson is nearly 90% full, while the akin Golden Triangle building is closer to 60% full, a reflection of how many new units went up in that neighborhood.

The Apartment Association of Metro Denver, which holds a quarterly media briefing to share the latest statistics, reports that concessions in the fourth quarter averaged 9.5% of total rent, which works out to four to five weeks of free rent. For new developments, free rent offers can average closer to three months.