Operations The Industry

Huge Awakening for US Owners

Dennis Pitcock
Written by Dennis Pitcock

UPDATE: The changes have been shot down in a Texas court, and will unlikely be a possibility again in the near future. See more via USNews here.

Possible changes in the US Labor laws could mean the days of high burn out  among hospitality managers (which include hostels) might be in the past, at the expense of profit and it’s getting mixed blessings.

Under the new labor law, designed to combat decades of stagnat wages, states that salaried employees, as most management employees are, who make under approximately $50,000 a  year must be compensated for overtime for hours over the typical 40 hour workweek. This means AGMs, front office managers, back office managers, housekeeping managers from hostels and hotels alike are telling themselves, “Finally some work-life balance!”

You’d think a unified front against these changes is coming, and perhaps some hotel lobbies are organizing, but not all are worried. This thing is, a properly oiled well run machine usually gives its workers some work-life balance as a byproduct of a successful model. It is the unorganized, inefficient models that demand more hours from their salaried workers to compensate for their lack of organization and inefficiencies, hence the many burn outs. We’ll now it is those companies that will be in for a shock.

These owners will now have to pay more in wages with overtime pay, raise more salaries to over $50k, or hire more talent such as another AGM, or even work more hours themselves (as many hostels might do) to meet these legal demands while they struggle to become more efficient and effective.

This will be a game changer in the entire hospitality field, and we are most curious to see how this turns out. How do you think it will go? Leave your comments below.

About the author

Dennis Pitcock

Dennis Pitcock

Dennis jumped into the hostel industry after a summer backpacking Europe in 2008. He went from being a guest to a manager within weeks, and currently does consulting for large and small hostels alike in 3 continents. Prior, he worked in eCommerce, so he has passion for the tech side of the industry and is now deeply entrenched in the hostel and activities industry.

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