An Aspen Meadows Resort sign welcomes visitors outside of the West End Social restaurant on the campus owned by The Aspen Institute. About two dozen J-1 visa exchange students who worked at the Meadows during the summer drafted a letter in late August detailing what they alleged was unfair work treatment.
Aspen Meadows Resort will offer returning J-1 visa students the same pay and access to tips as domestic employees after complaints from participants in the cultural exchange program about working conditions over the summer.
Meanwhile, one of the visa sponsorship agencies that matched international students with Aspen Meadows told program participants it would refund their fees if they waive their right to sue the sponsor. Another visa sponsorship agency told Aspen Public Radio and Aspen Journalism that they are investigating the complaints, while an official with the state labor department confirmed that it has received two open complaints about the Meadows.
Each year, hundreds of young people from around the world get J-1 visas to work on the mountain and at local businesses in Aspen. The number of J-1 visa holders across a variety of employment and internship programs in Aspen’s 81611 ZIP code code grew from 480 in 2018 to 939 in 2023.
The J-1 Exchange Visitor Visa, which was established as part of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, is overseen by the U.S. Department of State and is meant to provide a meaningful work and cultural experience for international students and U.S. employers.
However, complaints about housing and working conditions — expressed in a letter drafted by about two dozen J-1s who worked at the Meadows this past summer that was sent to local media outlets, and in subsequent communication with 10 J-1 participants — raise questions about a program that can make international students vulnerable to unfair treatment.
A statement provided by Theresa Silo, chief human resources officer at Salamander Collection, a Virginia-based hospitality company that manages Aspen Meadows Resort, said they are “transparent” with J-1 students and sponsors throughout the program process. Meadows’ staff provided an additional statement that said they “greatly value the contributions of J-1 students and work hard to provide them with a positive experience.”
“We are proud of the cultural and professional experiences that the Aspen Meadows team provides to its J-1 students and our company is committed to continually improving the program each season,” Silo’s statement said.
Ştefan-Dragoş Cană, who is in his third year studying civil engineering in his home country of Romania, decided to apply for the program after hearing about his sister’s experience working as a J-1 visa holder in Newport, Rhode Island, years ago.
“She was like, ‘You need to do it. You have nothing to lose. Like, you’re 21 years old. Just pack your luggage, go there for a summer, and for sure you’ll have a great time,’” Cană recalls. “And I said, ‘OK, let’s do it. Why not?’”
Cană knew a lot of young Romanians who applied for J-1 visas to travel and work in the U.S. during the summers, but the program isn’t cheap.
Ştefan-Dragoş Cană, right, who is in his third year studying civil engineering in his home country of Romania, poses for a scenic photo with two of his fellow J-1 visa participants, Dario Miladinov, left, and Daniel Tamas, center, at the top of Aspen Mountain last summer. Aspen Meadows has promised higher pay for returning J-1 students this winter after about a dozen participants, including Cană, Miladinov and Tamas, complained about working conditions.
He said his expenses included paying about $1,700 in program fees that went to both a local agency in Romania and the nonprofit visa sponsor Cultural Homestay International (CHI), which matched him with an employer in the U.S., as well as about $200 for the J-1 Summer Work Travel visa itself, and $1,200 for a plane ticket, plus health insurance and other travel expenses.
Once Cană secured a job making $20 an hour as a banquet server at Aspen Meadows Resort on the Aspen Institute campus, he ended up borrowing money from his sister to cover the roughly $4,000 total cost.
“So I said, ‘This would be enough for me to live peacefully, to pay my rent and pay back my program,’” Cană said. “And also the area of Aspen, I heard that it’s really nice, and I saw it on Google and stuff, and I was like, ‘OK, I want to go there.’”
Housing issues emerge
Cană’s new job offered housing for $850 per month in either Carbondale or Glenwood Springs, but he started to worry when his sponsor, CHI, told him Aspen Meadows couldn’t share an exact address or photos of where he would be staying for the four-month program until he got there. Cană said he also wasn’t allowed to move in until his orientation on June 10, but he was still required to pay a full month’s rent.
Cană’s worries grew on orientation day when Aspen Meadows Human Resources Director Darren Zemnick, who interviewed and hired him and others in the summer program, gave J-1 participants an eight-page housing agreement to sign.
It said they’d lose their security deposit and housing if they left their job for any reason, and they’d still have to pay rent until a new tenant was found by their employer.
Cană and his roommates ended up in a modern apartment complex in Carbondale across from City Market.
But not every J-1 in the summer program was so lucky, including Kristina Velichkovikj, a 23-year-old law student from Macedonia who worked as a restaurant server at Aspen Meadows.
Velichkovikj spent the past two summers working as a J-1 at a souvenir shop in North Carolina and as a restaurant server in New Jersey.
“I felt equality at work. I didn’t feel discriminated against, even when I was a stranger coming from another country,” she said. “With this program, you have experience of going to the other side of the world, so you can experience another culture and you meet so many people.”
But her time at the Meadows was not what she expected.
On her first day, Velichkovikj found out she’d be living at the Frontier Lodge along Highway 82 in Glenwood Springs.
She and other J-1s living there paid the same rent as their co-workers in Carbondale, but Velichkovikj described the rooms as cramped with no kitchen or working laundry on-site, and a longer commute that often took 1 1/2 to two hours compared with the 45-60 minutes promised in her job contract.
J-1 participants living at the Frontier Lodge said they also experienced a range of issues from windows that wouldn’t close to mold, rats and bug infestations.
“My roommate, she had so many bug bites on her skin and we were complaining, but no one was doing anything,” Velichkovikj said. “The whole experience was just terrible. You’re working so hard and then you come home and you’re scared to enter the room.”
Wage, tip policies questioned
Housing wasn’t the only issue that Velichkovikj, Cană and their fellow J-1s faced.
Although they knew they might be required to do some paid overtime work for $30 an hour, they were not prepared for 17-hour days with few breaks during major events such as the Aspen Ideas Fest and Security Forum.
The long days — with little time to sleep or wash their uniforms after commuting — were made worse when they learned from some of their non-J-1 coworkers in similar roles that the J-1s were earning less. As of Dec. 2, Aspen Meadows had listed an on-call banquet-server position for $35/hour as well as a restaurant server position for $18/hour plus gratuity and a host position for $21/hour with full-time benefits.
“I realized that these guys are using us so bad,” Cană said. “If it wasn’t for J-1s, I cannot imagine how they would pull off Ideas Fest.”
During Velichkovikj’s job interview with Zemnick, she said she asked about a line in her J-1 job offer for a restaurant server position that said she would only take home “tips in cash” and not credit card tips earned like the regular servers at the resort’s West End Social restaurant.
“He was really nice in the interview, and I asked him, ‘What’s this thing about? Is there a mistake? Because you cannot write down the server can take the tips only in cash — that’s illegal,’” Velichkovikj said. “And he said, ‘Oh, no, you don’t have to worry about that. We’ll just figure it out with the American servers, everything is going to be fine.”
However, Velichkovikj said that even though she complained to Aspen Meadows management multiple times after her arrival, the rule that she and other J-1s in the summer program could not receive credit card tips was never changed.
“The only response I got from them about the tips is that they told me, ‘You signed that you’re going to take tips in cash,’” she said. “And I’m like, ‘But in the interview, you told me that we can speak with the American servers and see if they agree to including us in the tips pool.’”
Although Cană and other J-1s said they enjoyed cultural experiences such as visiting the Maroon Bells or riding the gondola to the top of Aspen Mountain, morale at work was low and they were afraid that if they left their jobs, they would lose their housing and have to go home.
Adi Hodžić, right, and Andrej Ninkovic, both 23-year-old J-1 visa participants from Bosnia, get ready for a work shift at Aspen Meadows Resort this summer. Hodžić and Ninkovic worked as banquet servers at the resort for several months and are part of a group of about two dozen J-1 employees who have been speaking out about alleged unfair treatment at the Meadows last summer.
Velichkovikj decided it was worth losing her $400 housing deposit and remaining rent owed, and left a month early for another J-1 server job in California.
“I couldn’t handle it anymore,” she said. “I had like mental breakdowns without sleeping, stress and everything.”
Upping pay this winter
At the end of August, Cană and about two dozen other J-1 participants at Aspen Meadows sent a letter to staff at Salamander Collection. The J-1 participants also sent a version of the letter regarding their summer experience to staff at the Aspen Institute, which owns the Meadows facilities and the surrounding campus where the resort sits, as well as staff at the city of Aspen and to local news outlets.
Officials with the Meadows, the Institute and Salamander declined interview requests, but Meadows General Manager Justin Todd shared an initial statement and he, along with Silo, the Salamander chief human resources officer, answered follow-up questions over email.
“While the majority of J-1 students enjoy their experience, we are aware that some participants in this year’s program were unsatisfied with their time in Aspen,” Todd said. “We strive to keep all applicants clearly informed during the interview process and in advance of arrival about what will occur, including housing and transportation scenarios.”
According to Todd, Aspen Meadows investigated the J-1 participants’ complaints and determined that the resort did not break any laws or program requirements. He said repairs conducted on Highway 82 this past year “unfortunately sometimes lengthened commute times for our most recent J-1 students,” and that “no mold or bug infestations were found” when they inspected housing conditions.
“All housing is inspected to ensure cleanliness and good working order,” Todd said.
He added that the students also had the opportunity to arrange for their own housing before they arrived, although most choose resort-provided housing.
“Due to the shortage of affordable housing in the Aspen area, we are continually looking for affordable housing options in other parts of the Roaring Fork Valley,” Todd said.
Todd and Silo also responded to questions about overtime work and the tipping system.
“J-1 four-month work and travel students are part of our hotel training program, and we do not consider training positions to be tipped positions,” Silo said in a statement. “In lieu of inclusion in the tip pool, we pay J-1 students a higher hourly rate than our local servers and guarantee them a minimum of 32 hours a week.”
“We are in full compliance with all federal and state laws regarding the J-1 visa program, including wages and tips, and pay competitively,” Todd said in a separate email.
Todd added that beginning this winter, “returning J-1 students in server positions will be eligible for increased pay and participation in the tip pool based on their experience and skillset.” J-1 banquet servers, who do not earn tips, will also be eligible for higher pay, he said.
“As part of the program’s evolution, we are pleased that we will now be able to offer any returning J-1 students pay parity with our local workforce,” Todd’s statement said. “Those that have worked at Aspen Meadows previously will receive the same base wage and earning potential as our local employees. Those who are new to Aspen Meadows will have the opportunity to increase their wages after undertaking a short training program.”
The Aspen Institute is also partnering with Aspen Music Festival and School and Aspen Center for Physics on a proposed 57-unit employee housing project at Aspen Meadows, but the plan is still seeking land use approval and it’s unclear if J-1 participants would be eligible to reside there if it is completed.
Experts weigh in
As the program came to an end this summer, some J-1s sought legal advice as well as submitted complaints to the U.S. Department of State, which oversees the J-1 visa program, and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
Aspen Public Radio and Aspen Journalism reached out to both departments for an interview, which they declined, but they did send responses over email. Silo said via email that Aspen Meadows had not been contacted by either the federal or state labor departments or the U.S. Department of State, but “if we do receive an inquiry or complaint, we will certainly cooperate fully to resolve any concerns.”
In a statement, a spokesperson with the U.S. Department of State clarified its processes for handling complaints.
“Should an exchange visitor have an incident or complaint related to their program, they should start by working directly with the local field staff and sponsor,” the statement said. “Sponsors are required to provide exchange visitors with emergency telephone numbers, including the department helpline which works to ensure the health and safety of its exchange visitors.”
In an email, a spokesperson with the Colorado labor department confirmed that its division of labor had received “two open claims about Aspen Meadows Resort,” but said, “we cannot provide further details until a determination is made.”
The spokesperson did, however, answer questions about Colorado laws around tipping and fair wages.
“At the time a customer pays a tip, by law it is earned by the employee, and is the sole property of the employee, so all tips must be paid to the employee, regardless of whether the tip was left in cash, credit, electronically, or otherwise,” the statement said.
The state labor department spokesperson also clarified that under Colorado law, “employers cannot opt out of tip protections by designating employees as ‘seasonal,’ ‘temporary,’ ‘trainees,’ or any other name, if the employee actually performs tipped work.”
“If a server in training is just watching, or doing their work alongside a more experienced server training them, then the tips can go to just the more experienced server actually doing the tipped work,” the spokesperson said. “But once a server is serving customers themselves, even if still in a supervised training program, then tips from the customers they serve are theirs with the exception that tips can be pooled, but the in-training server would have a right to be part of that pool.”
University of Denver professor Rebecca Galemba, who leads the DU Just Wages Project, said that although mandatory paid overtime is often legal, practices such as denying noncitizen workers tips they earned is illegal under state law but not uncommon.
“It’s horrible but not surprising especially in industries that rely on workers with precarious immigration status and use a host of exploitative labor practices, some of which are legal and some that are illegal,” Galemba said. “And while workers in the J-1 visa program can leave their employers, there’s a lot of difficulties, right?”
David Seligman, an attorney and executive director of Denver-based nonprofit law firm Towards Justice, agreed that the experience that J-1 participants had at Aspen Meadows this past summer is not unique.
“These are workers who are supposed to be here on a cultural exchange; they’re not supposed to be here providing difficult, strenuous, low-wage work,” Seligman said. “And yet, far too many employers appear to be exploiting it for that end.”
Towards Justice is currently representing plaintiffs in two lawsuits involving the J-1 program — one against the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, and another filed in October 2023 against Marriott Hotels alleging similar issues at the St. Regis Aspen as those cited by the J-1 students at the Meadows.
The human resources director named in the St. Regis lawsuit is Zemnick, who since moved over to the Meadows and oversaw the hiring and management of J-1 employees at the resort this summer. Zemnick did not reply to an initial request for an interview.
In addition to legal support and representation for J-1s, Seligman said that more enforcement of labor laws is needed to hold employers and guest-worker programs accountable.
“We need much more enforcement by federal, state and local authorities, because this stuff is bad,” Seligman said. “It’s bad for the workers who are being exploited, and it’s also bad for working families whose wages are suppressed because of big, deep-pocketed employers exploiting these programs, which makes it hard for everybody to make ends meet.”
Seligman also suggests that because of its status as a guest-worker program, J-1 visas should be moved under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Labor rather than the Department of State.
“We also have enforcement agencies that are underfunded,” Seligman added. “We spend way too little in general on labor enforcement, which is to the detriment of everybody.”
Aspen Public Radio and Aspen Journalism also reached out to nonprofit sponsors Cultural Homestay International (CHI) and InterExchange, both of which matched J-1 participants with Aspen Meadows this past summer.
Cană’s visa sponsor, CHI, declined an interview request, but the nonprofit responded to a range of questions over email and said it’s still investigating the J-1 complaints. The nonprofit organization sponsored about 14 J-1 students at the Meadows this summer.
“While we are unable to comment on specific individuals’ cases due to privacy concerns, we are aware of the exchange visitors’ complaints and are proactively investigating their claims,” CHI said in a statement. “As a program sponsor, our focus and priorities are to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of exchange visitors, and we have been communicating with both the participants and Aspen Meadows to address and work through the issues.”
CHI added that each J-1 participant’s case is being reviewed individually and they are “considering all options including refunds.”
Velichkovikj’s sponsor, InterExchange, did not respond to multiple interview requests, but officials with the organization informed her and other J-1s via email that InterExchange would not be working with the Meadows again. They also offered to refund their program fees if students signed an agreement not to sue the visa sponsor.
“Prompted by your letter, we have investigated these issues and have decided
InterExchange will no longer place program participants or otherwise partner with Aspen Meadows Resort,” an official with InterExchange wrote to Velichkovikj in an Oct. 24 email. “Because Aspen Meadow Resort did not meet InterExchange’s standards for qualified host employers, we’re prepared to offer you a refund of the fees you paid to InterExchange in connection with your participation in the Program.”
Although none of this can change the experience that J-1s had this summer, Velichkovikj hopes it will inform her work as a lawyer one day, and that it will make a difference for future J-1 participants.
“I wouldn’t like any other person to go again through what we’ve been through,” Velichkovikj said.
