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."LA BUSINESS LEADER SAYS CRIME, WILDFIRE FALLOUT FUELING PRATT SURGE AS VOTERS SEEK CHANGE: 'PEOPLE ARE ANGRY'Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been highly critical of President Trump's immigration agenda in recent months.
On Thursday, she further criticized the administration after federal agents were seen outside a venue where California Gov.Gavin Newsom was holding a press conference. (Patrick T.
Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)To compile the report, the EPI analyzed fourth-quarter data from the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), specifically isolating Los Angeles County Hotels and Motels.By comparing year-over-year employment percentages for December, researchers highlighted a multi-year trend of economic stagnation that critics say directly correlates with the city's aggressive regulatory intervention.Industry leaders have long sounded "alarm bells" over the Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance—informally dubbed the "Olympic Wage"—which was heavily championed b...