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AAHOA OPPOSED THE Los Angeles City Council's recent proposal to raise hotel worker wages to $30 per hour, plus $8 for healthcare, citing a flawed economic impact study that misjudges the industry's ability to absorb the increase. AAHOA members, including a delegation of women hoteliers, testified before the council, warning of the proposal's impact on smaller, independent hotels, the association said in a statement. AAHOA Vice Chairman Kamalesh "KP" Patel, a California hotelier, testified on Oct. 16, addressing the hospitality industry's ongoing labor challenges. "I have a very serious concern about the study presentation. The study is majorly flawed," Patel said. "There is zero understanding of the differences between hotels-high-end, full-service and limited-service. These people are asking for their fair shake. We are asking to be heard properly. Limited-service properties do not offer the same services as full-service hotels and should not be treated the same." AAHOA argues that the study overlooks the unique challenges of smaller, limited-service hotels, ignoring their tight margins and operational constraints. A sudden wage increase to $30 per hour, plus healthcare costs, could result in layoffs, service cuts or closures, AAHOA said.

Approximately 10,000 U.S. hotel workers began a multi-day strike on Sunday in eight cities, including Boston, Honolulu, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle, after contract talks with Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels Corp. stalled. The workers, members of the UNITE HERE labor union, are demanding higher wages, fair staffing and the reversal of COVID-era cuts. The union said insufficient wages force many to work multiple jobs to cover living costs. "I have to work a second job because my hotel job isn't enough to support my kids as a single mom," said Mary Taboniar, a housekeeper at Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu for six years. "I'm living on the edge, unsure if I'll be able to pay our rent, groceries, or provide my family with health care. It's so stressful. One job should be enough."

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT of Labor's definition of who qualifies as independent contractors, due to take effect in March, is meant to ensure that workers are treated fairly, according to the department. However, the American Hotel & Lodging Association says the new rule limits independent contractors to work and impact hotels' ability to find workers. The new rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act aims to prevent misclassification of workers that can affect workers' rights to minimum wage and overtime pay, "facilitates wage theft, allows some employers to undercut their law-abiding competition and hurts the economy at-large," the Labor Department said in a statement. It uses a multifactor analysis of six factors defining a worker's relationship with an employer, such as the worker's opportunities for profit or loss; the financial stake and nature of any resources a worker has invested in the work; the degree of permanence of the work relationship; the degree of control an employer has over the individual's work; how essential the work is to the employer's business; and the worker's skill and initiative.

FORMER AAHOA CHAIRWOMAN Jagruti Panwala testified recently before Congress on the Department of Labor's proposal to raise the overtime salary exemption threshold for executive, administrative, and professional employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Panwala, now a board member for American Hotel & Lodging Association, argued that the proposed change would actually limit hotel employees' opportunities and does not take into account economic differences between regions of the country. In August, DOL proposed raising the threshold from $35,568 to an estimated $60,209 in 2024 according to AHLA based on the department's projections. That equals a nearly 70 percent increase, and AHLA said that means all employees making under that amount must be paid overtime for any hours worked over 40 in one week. The DOL proposal also would automatically increase the threshold every three years thereafter based on the 35th percentile of earnings for full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage census region, currently the South.

AAHOA IS CONTINUING its advocacy efforts with new meetings with members of Congress. On Sept. 27, representatives from the association met with Sen. John Hickenlooper, Democrat from Colorado, in Washington at his Capitol Hill office. Hickenlooper, who sits on both the Small Business Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee, met with AAHOA to discuss Small Business Administration loan limit increases as well as fairness and transparency in the franchise industry, according to AAHOA. In Hickenlooper's home state of Colorado, 39.5 percent of all hotels in the state are owned by AAHOA members, comprising 520 hotels and 55,861 rooms, according to a recent study for AAHOA by Oxford Economics. Those hotels provide $5 billion in wages and other compensation, along with approximately 54,490 direct jobs and 101,000 total impact jobs in the state. They provide $8.5 billion in contribution to the state's GDP, and $2.3 billion in federal, state and local taxes along with $201 million in total lodging taxes.