Los Angeles Delays $30/hour ‘Olympic Wage’ After Job Losses Shake Industry
The move comes after the hotel industry decided to engage in some ballot-measure warfare.
A few weeks ago, the Los Angeles area was rocked by another self-created disaster.
This one took the form of economic turmoil following the implementation of a $30/hour minimum wage ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games, which the city is poised to host.
The Los Angeles hotel industry is shedding jobs at its steepest rate in a decade outside the pandemic, according to a new analysis of federal labor data, as local businesses struggle to stay afloat under some of the most aggressive minimum wage mandates in the country.
An analysis by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) of newly released U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures revealed that Los Angeles County’s hotel and motel sector lost 1.7% of its workforce in December 2025 compared to the same period the prior year. The contraction hit the market just as a string of hyper-localized wage mandates went into effect.
“This is the largest year-over-year drop in the hotel industry in a decade (barring losses related to COVID),” the EPI noted in its report. “While countywide the minimum wage reached $17.81 an hour last year (higher than the state’s $16.50 hourly mandate), the City of Los Angeles also increased its hotel-specific minimum wage mandate up to $22.50 an hour.”
Now, city officials have delayed implementation of the controversial plan, which clearly threatened to create severe problems in the regional hospitality industry at a time of great need.
…City leaders recently voted to push back full implementation until 2030 amid concerns about rising labor costs as hotels prepare for a surge in visitors tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.
Rebekah Paxton, research director at the Employment Policies Institute, said city leaders began reconsidering the timeline after concerns emerged from the hospitality industry ahead of several major international events.
“There were concerns from the hotel community,” Paxton told Fox News Digital. “There was some data that came out that the hotels were struggling ahead of the Olympics, even as we’re approaching the World Cup this summer.”
The proposal also comes as New York City officials consider a separate plan to raise the city’s minimum wage to $30 an hour over several years, a concept aligned with broader progressive efforts to increase wage floors in high-cost areas.
LA delays $30 'Olympic wage' until after games as hotel owners warn of layoffs, economic fallout https://t.co/no3oLUNm96
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) June 28, 2026
Interestingly, the move comes after the hotel industry decided to engage in some ballot-measure warfare.
A broad array of trade associations and travel businesses—from the Asian American Hotel Owners Association to Delta Airlines—managed to qualify a ballot measure for the November 2026 election to repeal L.A.’s gross receipts tax. That would cost L.A. over $800 million annually, thereby triggering a fiscal crisis for the city.
“Thousands of layoffs would be required, said Matthew Szabo, L.A.’s city administrative officer, at a May city council meeting. “The city would be forced to implement austerity measures far worse than seen during the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic.” Szabo went on to predict the layoff of around 2,000 police officers, which would put L.A.’s preparation for the Olympic games “in severe jeopardy.”
The backers of the ballot measure offered to withdraw it, however, if the city council agreed to delay the hotel wage hike. In the face of this potentially catastrophic threat, the city council stood down. Last month, it voted to delay the Olympic wage to 2030, sparing the hotel industry for a couple more years. (It will still operate as a phased-in increase with graduated annual hikes.)
Los Angeles politicians may congratulate themselves for “saving” these jobs with a delayed timeline, but the damage from their experimental wage engineering is already rippling through the regional economy.
Showing the real "Minimum Wage" is "0". https://t.co/plyxGcFXbA
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) June 29, 2026
In the real world, employers respond to mandates with layoffs, automation, and relocation, proving that no city council vote can repeal basic supply-and-demand. When labor becomes “utterly unaffordable,” the true minimum wage is not $30, or $22.50, or even $17.81…it is zero, because that is what workers earn when their jobs disappear.
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Comments
Only $30 / hr wage. Seriously? Why does Karen Bass hate poor people? Who can live on only $30 / hr??
It should be at least $3,000 / hr. Seriously. Why does Karen Bass hate poor people?
I believe the LA Olympics are going to be an unmitigated disaster. F
I was thinking the same thing.
I can see LA disallowing the olympic flame as a fire hazard; or alternatively, it setting the rest of LA on fire,
They need to worship Trump for giving them a break on tips.
Are you suggesting changing the Olympic flag to place Trump’s face inside the central BLACK ring?
Only after changing the black ring to orange, of course!
Time to get rid of capitalism says Karen Bass, all jobs must be nationalized by government.
Personally I’ve adopted an accelerationist attitude to LA/NYC insane economic/tax/regulatory policies. The sooner they implement these Cray Cray policies the sooner the reckoning arrives and significant consequences are applied. In sum the sooner they reach the stage Margaret Thatcher described as the ultimate limiting principle of socialism ‘running out of other people’s $’ … the sooner the real world delivers the message via example that socialism will always ultimately fail. No whining when the hoped for Federal bailouts NEVER arrive or when the city assets are seized and/or sold to pay off debts.
Aww. What’s an Angelino to do on less than $30 an hour?
It is not clear if the politicians setting the level of minimum wages have any limiting principle. So why not set it to $100 per hour or $1000 per hour?Raising the minimum wage is the surest way to higher unemployment of teens, particularly minorities, and non-college graduates. There seems to be an misplaced belief that to solve the homeless crisis one needs to raise the minimum wage – as if a single person making minimum wage should be able to afford an apartment. But this is all an illusion as it will cause greater automation, less employment, and higher costs for everyone, particularly for those people purchasing products or services relying on minimum wage labor such as fast food.
Tom Kean, who was absent from Congress for 117 days due to depression, was asked if he feels better now.
He said, “Not really, but I had to leave because all the workers from LA are depressed because they won’t be getting $30 an hour and they’re taking up all the beds.”
As to LA’s Gross Receipts Tax, that is a tax on LA headquartered companies that do business all over the US. You pay a tax on your gross sales, even if it’s in another state. Before I retired I worked for a US corporation that was based in downtown LA. Big building, many floors, lots of well paid employees.
Ten years ago the company moved their HQ to Houston because of that stupid tax.
Civic suicide is what that’s called. Politicians forget that investment capital is fluid, it follows the path of least resistance.
It would be nice if the hotels in a 200 mile radius declared it too expensive to keep operating all their rooms and cut the room availability half and increase the price of the rooms triple. They aren’t going to beat the commie overloards by pretending to force through a ballot proposal. Once the olympics are over the commies will keep taking their profits.
But hey, if it works here to raise the minimum wage level to make people rich, why don’t we force the poor countries shipping their dregs here to raise their minimum wage so their dregs don’t need to leave their mother country?