Small Hotel Owners Fight Back Against Olympic Wage Hike

Airline, hotel and concession companies are banding together to overturn Los Angeles’ newly approved minimum wage hike for tourism workers in the lead-up to the 2028 Olympics.

The Los Angeles Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress is the latest group speaking out against the recently passed ordinance, with a rally planned for next week, Westside Current reported. The group consists of big hitters like Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and the American Hotel & Lodging Association, and expressed concern over the potential impact on small, independent hotels.

“Small businesses will be forced to shut down, workers will lose their jobs, and the economic fallout will stretch across the city,” Phil Singer, a spokesperson for the alliance, told the Current.

The group has until June 30 to gather about 93,000 signatures from registered Los Angeles voters to put the measure on the ballot in June 2026. The wage hike is set to go into effect July 1, with wages for hotel and airport workers starting at $22.50 and increasing to $25 next July, $27.50 in July 2027 and $30 in July 2028, a few weeks before the Olympics opening ceremony. It also includes an $8.35 per hour health care payment beginning in July 2026.

Mark Beccaria, a partner at the 210-room Hotel Angeleno near The Getty, said the wage increase would lead the hotel to close its restaurant and valet services, laying off 39 in the process.

“Common sense says you cannot raise wages over 50% in a year when revenues are down,” Beccaria told leaders, according to the Current.

Jon Bortz, CEO of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, added to the chorus. In the city of Los Angeles, the Maryland-based company owns the Kimpton Hotel Palomar and the W Los Angeles in Westwood. In West Hollywood, which is also subject to the wage increase, Pebblebrook also has in its portfolio the Mondrian Los Angeles, Montrose Beverly Hills, and the Chamberlain West Hollywood.

Bortz said those hotels could also be forced to scale back restaurant operations, including turning the Palomar’s restaurant into a self-service breakfast room and possibly closing one of the W’s restaurants.

“We have to change the business model of these properties to have any hope of surviving,” he said.

On June 10, proponents of the wage increase will gather outside Los Angeles City Hall for a rally organized by the Tourism Workers Rising Coalition in opposition to the proposed referendum that would overturn the ordinance.

— Chris Malone Méndez