There’s a new twist in the ongoing soap-opera like saga surrounding the Los Angeles Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance. The Hotel Associations that opposed the Ordinance have now dropped their two-year law suit to stop it.
As we reported here and here, the Ordinance had an effective date of July 1, 2015 for hotels with 300 or more rooms and a July 1, 2016 effective date for hotels with 150 or more rooms. While preparing for and actually implementing the requirements in the Ordinance have been grueling and costly for the Los Angeles hospitality industry, I’m guessing the mounting costs of the appeals process was simply compounding the effect. Originally, the hospitality industry argued that the Ordinance would force hotels to unionize, but that claim did not appear to hold water. Plus, now that California increased its minimum wage, and with so many local minimum wage ordinances popping up (as noted here), this LA Hotel Ordinance seems more mainstream (even though many of its requirements are not).
While affected hotels, vendors and restaurants are working out the kinks in compliance, we have yet to see any cases brought under the Ordinance.
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