Wages
Louisiana – Two bills to increase the minimum wage were defeated in a house committee. One would have increased the minimum wage to $12/hr by 2026 and the other would have set a $14/hr wage rate by 2029. More details.
Oklahoma – The secretary of state approved the collection of signatures for State Question 832, a ballot proposal this Nov. that would raise the minimum wage to $15/hr by 2029 and then index it inflation thereafter. If proponents manage to gather 92,262 signatures of registered Oklahoma voters within 90 days, a vote on the question would be scheduled. The number of signatures required to warrant a referendum represents 8 percent of the number of votes cast in Oklahoma’s last gubernatorial election. The initiative had been the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Oklahoma State Chamber and Oklahoma Farm Bureau Legal Foundation asking the court to declare the pending petition legally insufficient. They argued that a portion of the petition violates the state constitution and that the proposed wording of the ballot initiative is misleading. The state supreme court recently rejected that suit clearing the way for the initiative to proceed. More details.
Minneapolis, MN – The city council voted to delay implementation of a controversial ordinance establishing a minimum wage for rideshare drivers in the city. The council unanimously adopted an amendment to the ordinance that delays its implementation to July 1. The ordinance, which requires a minimum wage of $1.40/mile and $.51/minute, prompted Uber and Lyft to promise to pull their business from the city on May 1, when the ordinance was originally set to go into effect. Multiple council members said the extension will allow the body to continue discussions about the ordinance, as well as monitor the Minnesota legislature’s efforts to set a statewide policy on rideshare wages. It will also allow new rideshare companies to get up and running in the city. In response to the extension, Lyft said it would continue to operate in Minneapolis until the new July 1 date. More details.
Paid Leave
Kentucky – The governor signed legislation that will give both private and public employers the option to allow their employees to purchase paid family leave insurance. It had previously passed the house on a 92-1 vote and passed the senate unanimously. Per the bill language, paid family leave insurance can allow for temporary wage replacement for workers who take leave to care for a sick family member or bond with a child after a birth, adoption, or foster care placement. It could also be used when caring for a family member who is a first responder or member of the military and who was injured in the line of duty. At least six other states have a similar provision. More details.
Labor Policy
Biden Administration – The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had completed reviews of the Labor Department’s proposed expansion of overtime pay requirements as well as tighter rules on certain retirement investment advice. The policy changes will be released in the coming weeks. In Aug., the Labor Department proposed raising the bar for time-and-a-half overtime pay so workers earning up to around $55,000 annually would qualify, compared to the $35,568 set during the Trump administration. That number could actually end up being higher due to how the Labor Department is calculating the threshold, a possibility that has businesses on edge. More details.
U.S. Senate – The U.S. Senate passed a resolution to overturn the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)’s joint employer rule. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin and Independent Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Angus King joined Republicans to advance the resolution. The measure is on its way to President Biden who has publicly stated he will veto it. The U.S. House had previously advanced the measure on a 207-177 vote in Jan. The passage of the resolution is an important symbolic victory for Republicans and several business groups that have carried on a months-long lobbying campaign to defeat the NLRB rule. Many in the business community – particularly the franchise industry – have said the regulation will dramatically raise costs for employers and take away jobs. More details.
Florida – Legislation is awaiting the governor’s signature that would preempt localities from enacting a variety of employment-related laws, most notably mandate scheduling requirements. Specifically, local governments are prohibited from adopting or enforcing any regulation relating to scheduling, including predictive scheduling, by a private employer except as expressly authorized or required by state or federal law, rule, or regulation or pursuant to federal grant requirements. The governor is expected to sign the bill. More details.
Hawaii – Captive audience legislation has temporarily stalled in the senate. Both chambers have passed the bill but the senate has rejected the amendments added by the house. Negotiations are continuing. If passed, the bill would make it unlawful for an employer to discharge, discipline, or otherwise penalize or threaten any adverse employment action against an employee because the employee declines to attend or participate in an employer-sponsored meeting that communicates the opinion of the employer about a political matter. It would also be unlawful to discipline a worker that declines to receive (or listen to) a communication from the employer that communicates the opinion of the employer about political matters. More details.
Maryland – Pay transparency legislation is on its way to the governor. If signed, the new law will alter the requirement that an employer disclose certain wage information to an applicant for employment, and require an employer to disclose certain wage information. It further requires an employer to set the wage range disclosed in good faith and prohibits an employer from taking certain retaliatory actions. It also requires each employer to keep a record of compliance with certain provisions of the act for at least 3 years. The governor is expected to sign. More details.
Labor Activism
One Fair Wage – Saru Jayarman, president of One Fair Wage, is demanding that California’s new $20/hr minimum wage law for fast food workers be extended to all workers in the state. Jayarman continues to argue that raising the minimum wage will put more money into workers’ pockets who in turn spend their extra earnings, stimulating the economy and growing industries. On a related topic, there is a pending ballot measure this Nov. to raise the statewide wage to $18/hr. More details.
Sustainability
SEC – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it will delay implementation of the recently-finalized climate disclosure rules laying out new requirements for companies to divulge their climate risks and some of their greenhouse emissions in public filings submitted annually to the agency. The delay is in response to litigation, most notably from Republican attorneys general, challenging the agency’s authority to promulgate the rule. If and when implemented, the new rules require publicly-traded companies to analyze and publish how climate change threatens their business whether through physical risks like floods and other extreme weather or through “transition risks” like regulation. Between the first draft of the SEC’s climate disclosure rules (published in 2022) and now, the regulator scrapped requirements for companies to reveal Scope 3 greenhouse emissions stemming from the products they sell. More details.
Key Takeaways
- Despite a near certain Presidential veto, the bipartisan resolution rejecting the NLRB’s joint employer standard sets an important marker. Swing state Democrats and Independents do not want to overturn decades of precedent on the issue and recognize that the issue has political potency. That’s important to establish via a recorded vote because we’re likely to continue to grapple with the issue for many more years.
- This week, the NLRB announced that during the first six months of Fiscal Year 2024 (October 1–March 31), union election petitions filed at NLRB field offices rose 35 percent over the same period in Fiscal Year 2023. At the same time, unfair labor practice (ULP) charges filed across the NLRB’s field offices have increased 7 percent – from 9,612 to 10,278. The Board’s Cemex decision, essentially mandating a modified card-check system where the onus is now on the employer to demonstrate that a union is unnecessary, was cited as a leading reason for the significant uptick. As the Board aggressively pursues ULP’s as means to get into the courtroom and create new precedents (like Cemex), look for these numbers to steadily increase further.
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.