diff --git a/pkg/operator/ceph/object/rgw.go b/pkg/operator/ceph/object/rgw.go
index 5c0786c49..1d58130c4 100644
--- a/pkg/operator/ceph/object/rgw.go
+++ b/pkg/operator/ceph/object/rgw.go
@@ -109,6 +109,11 @@ func (c *clusterConfig) startRGWPods(realmName, zoneGroupName, zoneName string,
 		return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to check for RGWs to skip reconcile")
 	}
 
+	if rgwsToSkipReconcile.Has(c.store.Name) {
+		logger.Warningf("skipping reconcile of rgw deployment %q with label %q", c.store.Name, cephv1.SkipReconcileLabelKey)
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	// start a new deployment and scale up
 	// We force a single deployment and later set the deployment replica to the "instances" value
 	desiredRgwInstances := 1
@@ -117,11 +122,6 @@ func (c *clusterConfig) startRGWPods(realmName, zoneGroupName, zoneName string,
 
 		daemonLetterID := k8sutil.IndexToName(i)
 
-		if rgwsToSkipReconcile.Has(daemonLetterID) {
-			logger.Warningf("skipping reconcile of rgw daemon %q with label %q", daemonLetterID, cephv1.SkipReconcileLabelKey)
-			return nil
-		}
-
 		// Each rgw is id'ed by <store_name>-<letterID>
 		daemonName := fmt.Sprintf("%s-%s", c.store.Name, daemonLetterID)
 		// resource name is rook-ceph-rgw-<store_name>-<daemon_name>