|
The hotel industry is making a push to hire more workers in
Illinois and nationwide. The Illinois General Assembly tried to
address the issue by passing a hotel workforce development
program in the state budget. Lawmakers also passed a bill that
ties Illinois’ travel per diem for state employees to the
federal rate in an effort to boost hotels.
American Hotel and Lodging Association President and CEO Chip
Rogers said hotel employment is down 250,000 jobs since February
2020.
“A
massive shortage,” Rogers told The Center Square. “We poll our
members on a quarterly basis and the most recent information we
got back from our membership shows that 82% of hotels have
openings right now and about a third have so many openings that
its impairing their ability to fully service the demand that
they have.”
To help hotels fill open jobs and raise awareness of the hotel
industry’s career pathways, the AHLA Foundation’s “A Place to
Stay” advertising campaign is now active in 20 cities, including
Chicago.
Rogers said Illinois lawmakers did well in approving legislation
to protect hotel workers., which allows hotels to refuse service
or remove customers who engage in abusive behavior toward hotel
employees.
“We’ve been pushing legislation across the country called the
'Be Nice Bill,'” Rogers said. “Sometimes guests can get out of
hand and hotel employees should not have to put up with that.”
Illinois was seventh in the nation last year in hotel wages,
salaries and compensation at over $2.6 billion.
Rogers notes since the pandemic, average hotel wages have
increased faster than average wages throughout the general
economy.
“To continue supporting millions of good-paying jobs and
generating billions in tax revenue in communities across the
nation, hotels need to hire more people,” said Rogers.
Kevin Bessler reports on statewide issues in
Illinois for the Center Square. He has over 30 years of
experience in radio news reporting throughout the Midwest.
|
|
