Wages
Florida – On Sept. 30, the automatic increase in state’s annual minimum wage increase went into effect, adding another $1/hr. The new wage is $14/hr for non-tipped employees and $10.98/hr for tipped employees. In Nov. 2020, Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment to increase the state’s minimum wage by $1 annually until it reaches $15/hr on Sept. 30, 2026. The minimum wage will then increase annually based on the applicable consumer price index, or CPI-W, starting on Jan. 1, 2028. More details.
New Jersey – The state labor department announced a new minimum wage rate of $15.92/hr effective Jan. 1, 2026, a 43-cent increase. The server wage for tipped workers will increase to $6.05/hr. More details.
Ohio – The state announced that effective Jan. 1, 2026, the new state minimum wage will be $11/hr, up from the current $10.70/hr. Due to a ballot measure passed by the voters in 2006, the state minimum wage increases on Jan. 1 each year by the rate of inflation. The 2.8 percent increase corresponds to the CPI-W change from Sept. 1, 2024 to Aug. 31, 2025. The cash wage for tipped employees will increase to $5.50/hr. More details.
Washington – The state labor department announced that effective Jan.1, 2026, the state’s minimum wage will rise 2.8 percent to $17.13/hr. The state, which has no tip credit, will retain its status of having the highest minimum wage in the country. More details.
Seattle, WA – The Office of Labor Standards announced a new minimum wage of $21.30/hr, effective Jan 1. 2026. The wage is adjusted annually based on inflation. While the state has no tip credit, the current wage law in Seattle that was enacted in 2015 allows businesses that employ fewer than 500 workers to pay employees a slightly lower wage if the employee earns at least $2.72/hr in tips. That provision will sunset on Jan. 1 and servers will now make the full $21.30/hr. More details.
Paid Leave
Nebraska – The state’s new paid leave law went into effect Oct. 1. The Nebraska Healthy Families & Workplaces Act, passed by nearly 75 percent of voters as Initiative 436 in Nov. 2024, requires employers with 11 or more workers to provide paid sick time. Employees become eligible after 80 hours of employment, at which point they earn one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Workers at businesses with 11 to 19 employees may accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick time per year, while those at larger employers with 20 or more staff may accrue up to 56 hours annually. More details.
Labor Policy
Trump Administration – The White House has withdrawn the nomination of E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). President Trump’s choice of the conservative economist had prompted concerns that he was unqualified to lead an agency that releases key economic data. A White House official praised Antoni and said the president will soon nominate a new candidate to lead the agency. Trump nominated Antoni, the former chief economist at the Heritage Foundation and a frequent critic of the BLS, in Aug., shortly after Trump fired BLS chief Erika McEntarfer midway through her term, following a weak jobs report. More details.
U.S. Senate – The Senate HELP Committee is planning to hold confirmation votes next Thursday for a slate of President Trump’s labor nominees, including two whose bids were stalled earlier this year. The panel will be looking to advance the nominations of Crystal Carey to serve as general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board and former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) to become the Labor Department’s Inspector General. Carey’s bid was delayed after Republican Sen. Josh Hawley withheld support, citing her past comments criticizing an NLRB ruling that sought to bar “captive audience” meetings used to dissuade workers from unionizing. Two nominations to the Board itself – Scott Mayer and James Murphy – will also likely be voted on. More details.
California – The governor signed legislation empowering the state to resolve labor disputes between union workers and their employers if the National Labor Relations Board can’t or won’t swiftly resolve them. AB-288 expands the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) powers over private sector labor disputes like unfair labor practice charges and enforcing collective bargaining agreements. The bill, which applies to all workers covered by the National Labor Relations Act as of Jan. 1, 2025, would allow PERB to step in if the NLRB does not respond to unfair labor practice challenges, issue bargaining orders, or respond to certification petitions within six months. Similar legislation was signed into law last month in New York and is already subject to a lawsuit by the NLRB. More details.
Labor Activism
New York City – Progressive elected officials, labor activists and other leaders held a rally this week to launch the “Living Wage for All Coalition” to pursue a $30/hr minimum wage in the city and eliminating the tip credit throughout the state. Current mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has proposed incrementally raising the minimum wage in the city from $20/hr in 2027, to $23.50/hr in 2028, to $27/hr in 2029 and finally $30/hr in 2030 and indexed to inflation thereafter. Former Governor. Andrew Cuomo has also promised to raise the minimum wage as a part of his campaign for mayor, proposing a raise to $20/hr by 2027. More details.
Food Policy
California – Legislation is on the governor’s desk creating a statutory definition of “ultra-processed foods” (UPFs) and requiring the removal of certain “UPFs of concern” from school meal programs by July 1, 2035. The bill defines a UPF as any food or beverage containing one or more specified functional ingredients and either: (1) provides “high amounts” of saturated fat, sodium, or added sugars or (2) contains a nonnutritive sweetener or other covered substance. The bill expressly excludes certain items from the UPF definition, including alcoholic beverages, Class 1 milk, infant formula, medical foods, minimally processed products such as cut, canned, dried, or pasteurized foods among others. The governor is expected to sign the bill. More details.
Key Takeaways
- The industry and its leading brands should anticipate – at least in the short term – an escalation in rhetoric over tipping and the elimination of the tip credit in particular. One Fair Wage, which has been largely marginalized over the past 18 months, is trying to pounce on any momentum – real or perceived – that their agenda may get as a result of McDonald’s decision to leave the National Restaurant Association over the tip credit issue. OFW has escalated its attack on the NRA accusing them just this week of being bad for business, workers and democracy itself and challenging other companies to follow McDonald’s out of the Association. Individual brands could easily get pulled into this conversation and should prepare accordingly.
- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) entered FY 2025 (Oct.1) with a large budget, large caseload, and a Democratic majority of Commissioners, and observers predicted a watershed year for the agency. The election results a month later upended that narrative. Upon taking office, the Trump Administration swiftly implemented leadership changes, budget cuts, and made a dramatic shift in priorities. Ultimately, the EEOC filed just 93 lawsuits in FY 2025, marking a ten-year low in Commission litigation activity. A similar story has unfolded at the National Labor Relations Board where markedly different priorities and an intentional lack of quorum has stifled the Board. In the case of the NLRB, states like New York, California and Massachusetts are stepping in to fill that void and looking to handle many labor disputes at the state level. A similar scenario may now begin to unfold with regard to employment discrimination charges and progressive blue states may get much more intentional in this space. Brands should follow these developments closely.