Wages
Arizona – In response to a pending minimum wage / tip credit elimination ballot initiative, the Arizona Restaurant Association filed a lawsuit charging that some of the signature gatherers circulating petitions in favor of the measure were not properly registered with the state. The association contends that many of the more than 350,000 signatures collected are legally invalid, many of the signers are not registered voters, and that numerous signature lines are missing the required data. If a circulator is disqualified, so are all the signatures he or she gathered. The measure, Proposition 212, needs to have at least 255,949 of those signatures judged valid to go to voters. No date has been set to hear the challenge. If approved by the voters, the measure would immediately raise the state minimum wage by $1/hr on Jan. 1 and another dollar at the beginning of 2026 and then be adjusted annually to account for inflation. The tip credit would be phased out by 2027. The state’s current minimum wage is $14.35/hr and the server wage is $11.35/hr. More details.
Michigan – The state supreme court ruled 4-3 that the legislature lacked the authority to adopt and amend petition language for a pair of ballot initiatives in 2018 that aimed to increase the state’s minimum wage, eventually eliminate the tip credit, and expand earned sick time for workers. Justices said the “adopt and amend” tactic was unconstitutional because the legislature circumvented the petition initiative process in 2018. In the majority opinion, justices wrote that “while the Michigan constitution is ambiguous when it comes to the legislature’s authority to adopt and amend a petition initiative within the same session, the constitution must be generally interpreted in favor of the people; in this case, the organizers of the petition initiatives and those who signed them.” Under the opinion, increases to Michigan’s standard minimum wage, tipped minimum wage, and an expansion of the state’s earned sick time laws are slated to take effect in Feb. 2025. As of Feb. 21, the minimum wage will rise to about $12.50/hr. That figure relies on federal Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation figures and the final amount may be different, depending on the calculations done by the state treasurer. By Feb. 21, 2028, the state’s minimum wage will hit roughly $15/hr and will rise with inflation each year thereafter. The state’s minimum wage is currently $10.33/hr. The law will also phase out the lower wage for tipped workers, increasing it from $3.93/hr to about $6/hr next year and eliminating it altogether in 2029. More details.
Paid Leave
Michigan – The state supreme court’s decision noted above also impacted the paid sick leave ballot passed by the voters in 2018. The reinstated law will require businesses with fewer than 10 employees to allow workers to accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick leave annually accrued at the rate of one hour of leave for every 30 hours of work. It will require larger businesses to let their workers accrue up to 72 hours of annual leave. Under the current law, employers with fewer than 50 workers were exempt from having to offer paid sick time. More details.
Labor Policy
U.S. Senate – The HELP committee advanced the nominations of National Labor Relations Board Chair Lauren McFerran for another five-year term on the board along with management-side labor attorney Joshua Ditelberg to fill a Republican seat that has been vacant since Dec. 2022. McFerran advanced on a party-line, 11-10 vote. The vote on Ditelberg was 18-3 with all three nays coming from Democrats. The nominations now will go to a vote by the full senate. More details.
California – The California Fast Food Council held its second meeting since its inception, this time in Sacramento. As expected, most of the meeting was focused on internal administration and governance issues, most notably the process for selecting an executive director. Public comment was allowed and a variety of business owners including representatives from the California Restaurant Association spoke to the difficulties the current wage law presents to employers while union representatives and workers advocated for more wage increases and additional worker protections. No votes were taken on policy-related issues. The council was mandated as part of AB-1228, signed into law by the governor in 2023, establishing a Fast Food Council to establish an hourly minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees and develop standards, rules, and regulations for the fast food industry. More details.
Illinois – The governor signed “captive audience” legislation forbidding employers from disciplining or penalizing workers who don’t participate in meetings “if the meeting or communication is to communicate the opinion of the employer about religious matters or political matters.” Union organizing is considered “political”. If an employee is compelled to attend a meeting or penalized for not going, that person has a year to file a civil lawsuit that could lead to winning compensation and reinstatement of a job. Illinois is now the seventh state to enact a captive audience law. More details.
Labor Activism
Amazon – A dissident group has won control of the Amazon Labor Union, the only union in the country that formally represents Amazon warehouse workers. The union won a representation vote at a Staten Island warehouse in 2022 but has yet to negotiate a contract as the company contests the outcome. The group has been divided over governance and strategy, as well as personality conflicts, after falling short in efforts to organize other Amazon facilities. A leader of the dissident group, Connor Spence, will take over, succeeding the founding president, Christian Smalls, who chose not to run for re-election. Mr. Spence defeated the union’s current recording secretary and a third candidate in an election that attracted roughly 250 votes out of thousands of workers at the warehouse. More details.
Misc.
New York, NY – A hearing on a proposal to require hotels to have a license to operate in the city has been temporarily postponed. The bill would limit hiring subcontracted workers and bolster the hotel union’s power. The bill is being pushed by the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, a powerful hotel workers’ union. The delay came after the Hotel Association for New York City contacted the union earlier this week to express openness to negotiations and requested a delay until mid-October. More details.
Key Takeaway
- The tone and tenor of the second California Fast Food Council meeting this week in Sacramento made it quite clear that the labor community has no intention of taking their collective feet off the gas and will begin advocating in earnest for additional wage increases among other policy priorities. While there was a general feeling in some corners of the business community that the “win” for labor advocates in the formation of the council would buy the industry some time before engaging in additional business model fights, that appears not to be the case. Labor advocates are just getting started and the industry should prepare accordingly.
Podcast
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