Wages
Hawaii – Legislation to raise the state minimum wage was amended and advanced by a senate committee. As currently written, the bill would increase the minimum wage to $18/hr by 2026 and eliminate the tip credit. There are differences to be worked out with a similar bill that passed the senate earlier in the session and that will occur in a conference committee soon. Chances for final passage remain high. More details.
Washington, D.C. – A proposed initiative that would eliminate the tipped wage remains in limbo as election officials scramble to confirm if it qualifies for the June 21 ballot. If approved by voters, Initiative 82 would phase out the subminimum wage of $5.05/hr paid to tipped workers in restaurants, nail salons, and parking lots, and instead require employers to pay them the prevailing minimum wage, currently $15.20/hr. The Board of Elections determined that the initiative’s proponents had met the 5 percent threshold for signatures from registered voters across the city. However, when it came to signatures gathered from voters in the various wards, proponents only met the necessary 5 percent threshold in four wards with one remaining inconclusive (the election board randomly samples the ballots to determine proper representation across districts). It remains unclear how long the review process will take, but officials conceded they want to have it done sooner rather than later because of impending deadlines to finalize, print, and mail out ballots ahead of the June 21 election. More details.
Paid Leave
New Hampshire – The state issued an RFP for insurers to manage the state’s voluntary paid medical and family leave policy for the next five years. The private plan would piggyback on a state-offered benefit to about 11,000 state employees providing up to 60 percent of salary to take care of a family member for up to six weeks. Just last month, the Republican-led house narrowly voted to repeal the program less than a year after it was signed into law, rebuking the governor who had won national acclaim for his voluntary approach. It is unclear if the senate will ultimately vote to repeal it as well but the bill would be vetoed if it got to the governor’s desk. More details.
Labor Policy
Labor Department – David Weil’s bid to head the Wage and Hour Division is likely over as three Democrats in the U.S. Senate voted against moving forward on his nomination. Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly and Sen. Joe Manchin, three of the caucus’ moderates, voted against the procedural vote. The final vote count was 47-53 against invoking cloture. Weil is the first Biden nominee to fail on the Senate floor and faced heated opposition from Republicans and business groups dating back to his prior stint in the same position for the Obama administration. Weil’s critics have faulted him for Obama-era policy moves on issues like independent contractor classification, joint employment designations, and overtime pay, making him one of President Joe Biden’s most polarizing labor-related nominees. More details.
Labor Department – The president’s fiscal 2023 budget was unveiled this week and it calls for an 11 percent spending increase at the agency. Specifically, the president is calling for an increase of about $400 million above fiscal 2022 for DOL’s worker protection agencies, which would bump spending from $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion. Officials said the increase is necessary to remedy recent attrition. The White House’s budget notes that worker protection agencies lost 14 percent of their staff between 2016 and 2020, which is “limiting their ability to perform inspections and conduct investigations.” Compared to fiscal 2022, the proposal includes increases of $57 million for the Wage and Hour Division; $89 million for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; and $48 million for the Employee Benefits Security Administration. All are significantly larger increases than the agencies received between fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2022. More details.
Labor Activism
Amazon – Once again, workers at a fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama appear to have rejected a union bid but outstanding challenged ballots could change the outcome. The vote count announced on Thursday was 993 against and 875 in favor, with 59 ballots counted as void and 416 counted as challenged. Since the challenged ballots are sufficient to swing the election, the result will depend on a court hearing adjudicating the status of the challenged ballots. That hearing has yet to be scheduled but is likely to take place in the next few weeks. Both parties will also have a chance to file objections to the election over the coming month. Conversely, in Staten Island, New York, 1,518 warehouse workers have so far voted “yes” to forming a union while 1,154 have voted “no,” according to an early tally Thursday evening by the National Labor Relations Board, which is overseeing both elections. Ballots will continue to be counted today and into the weekend. More details.
Starbucks – Two additional stores voted to unionize this week bringing the total to eight stores out of the nearly 9,000 in the system. Workers in Mesa, AZ voted 11-3 and workers in Knoxville, TN voted 8-7 to join Starbucks Workers United, which is now an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Many more unionization votes across the country will be tabulated in the next few weeks. More details.
Alcohol
Maine – The governor signed legislation that allows retailers to sell to-go alcoholic beverages until March 30, 2025. The bill merely extends the policy first enacted through executive order by the governor in March 2020 after the pandemic forced the shutdown of all bars and restaurants for months. It was further extended through April of this year. The governor will likely sign the bill. More details.
Sustainability
Hawaii – Next week, an additional senate committee will consider an amended version of house-approved legislation that would establish an extended producer responsibility program in the state. The bill would require certain producers of consumer goods to register with the state health department and pay an annual fee based on the amount of packaging volume the covered producer places on the market each calendar year. Additionally, the bill provides for the deposit of fees into a special extended producer responsibility fund and some of those monies be allocated toward the creation of a report that assesses the resources needed to reduce the volume of packaging waste sent to landfills. More details.
Maryland – Legislation is on its way to the governor’s desk to give the state some of the most aggressive environmental goals in the country. The bill, called the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, seeks to transition off natural gas, which emits more carbon than renewable sources of electricity. The bill’s sponsor hopes to make Maryland the first state in the country to ban using natural gas to heat and cool newly constructed buildings. The bill requires state agencies to determine how much capacity exists in the electric grid and write recommendations to make sure there’s enough moving forward. If signed, owners of large commercial and apartment buildings would be required to cut their carbon emissions or face fines. The state’s fleet and public-school buses would transition to electric vehicles and tax breaks would be handed out for community solar projects, along with loans to finance large-scale green energy projects. Additionally, the state would pay millions to organizations working in communities with neglected environments on projects such as planting trees, mitigating air pollution or insulating low-income housing. And the legislation would take new steps to set the state on course to be carbon neutral by 2045. It is expected that the governor vetoes the bill and that the legislature will move to override. More details.
Key Takeaways
- Brands need to fully understand the significance of the labor community’s momentum right now. With a high-profile win against Amazon and the continued progress of the Starbucks campaign, the labor union movement is enjoying a period of success not seen in generations. Their approval ratings among young workers continue to remain high and the leveraging of social networks has made their organizing job infinitely easier. If they continue to pile up wins at their current rate, they will soon turn their full attention to larger, more established industry brands.
- The defeat of David Weil’s nomination is a huge win for the industry. His nomination became a proxy fight on the joint employer issue. Under his previous tenure at the Labor Department, the Obama Administration systematically targeted the restaurant industry as well as the franchise business model. His defeat sends a message that his approach goes too far for moderate Democrats in the nation’s capital.
Podcast
Check out our Working Lunch podcast each week that includes further analysis into these legislative issues, policy, politics and much more. You can find Working Lunch on the Restaurant Business online website, SoundCloud, iTunes and Spotify.