By Ben Gitis, Emma Pettit
August 3, 2018
This study, building on previous American Action Forum (AAF) research, explores trends in hotel industry employment and wages since the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB’s) 2015 decision to broaden the joint employer standard. Last year, AAF found that franchise employment growth in the hotel industry slowed substantially in 2016, the year immediately following the NLRB decision. This study finds that hotel franchises continued to struggle in 2017. Overall, the joint employer ruling has likely placed hotel franchises at a distinct disadvantage, considering that in the two years since the 2015 decision, employment in hotel franchises has lagged considerably behind employment in non-franchises.