Wages
Boulder County, CO – County commissioners unveiled their plan to raise the county’s minimum wage to $15.70/hr as of Jan. 1. Commissioners will hold a town hall meeting on the subject Oct. 12 and a formal hearing Nov. 2. The state has a tip credit of $3.02 and if passed in its current form, the server wage would increase to $12.68/hr in Jan. More details.
Los Angeles County, CA – Legislation was introduced before the county board to set a minimum wage of $25/hr for hotel workers in unincorporated parts of the county. The proposed wage would incrementally increase to $30/hr by 2028. The current minimum wage for these workers is $16.80/hr. The City of Los Angeles and nearby Long Beach are considering similar legislation. More details.
Denver, CO – The city announced it will raise the local minimum wage by $1/hr in Jan. 2024, setting the new wage at $18.29/hr. The local law requires annual adjustments to ensure wages keep up with Denver’s cost of living. For 2024’s adjustment, the CPI for the city was 5.8 percent, less than last year’s increase of 8.94 percent. The server wage will rise to $15.27/hr. More details.
Minneapolis, MN – The city council will likely vote next week on a proposed ordinance that would guarantee a minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers within the city limits. If passed, drivers would get at least $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute, or $5, whichever is greater. The rule would only apply for the portion of each ride within the city. It would also guarantee riders and drivers are provided receipts, detailing how much the rider was charged versus what the driver received. In May, Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz vetoed a bill that would have mandated higher pay and job security for Lyft and Uber drivers in the state. Walz said at the time that rideshare drivers deserve fair wages and safe working conditions, but it wasn’t the right bill to achieve those goals. Seattle, New York City, and Washington state have passed similar laws. More details.
Labor Policy
EEOC – The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would impact how employers are required to accommodate employees who have work-related limitations due to pregnancy or a related condition. The proposed rules apply to all employers with at least 15 employees, employment agencies, labor unions, and the federal government. The proposed rules are not yet final, but they do signal the likely regulatory path that the EEOC will follow in implementing the requirements of the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) passed by Congress last Dec. The EEOC is currently soliciting comments from the public and may edit the proposed rules based on that feedback. The final rules will be published at some point after the comment period closes on Oct. 10, 2023. The EEOC will then set a date by which covered employers must comply. More details.
California – Legislation will likely soon be introduced that would extend unemployment benefits to striking workers. The deadlines for introduction of new legislation have passed but the sponsor intends to “gut and amend” an existing, unrelated bill to sidestep that requirement. The current head of the California Labor Federation is a former assembly member who sponsored identical legislation in 2019 that the business community was ultimately able to defeat. The new sponsor indicated that he will unveil his proposal in the next two weeks. More details.
Labor Activism
Starbucks – A U.S. appeals court rejected the company’s challenge to an earlier ruling requiring the coffee chain to rehire seven employees at a Memphis, Tennessee, store who were allegedly fired for supporting a union. The decision by the Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the first from an appeals court involving the nationwide campaign that has seen workers at more than 345 Starbucks locations vote to unionize. A three-judge panel said that by firing the workers last year, Starbucks likely discouraged other employees from exercising their rights under U.S. labor law. “Fear of retaliation will exist unless the Memphis Seven, apparently terminated for their union support, are reinstated,” Circuit Judge Danny Boggs wrote for the court. The decision could embolden the National Labor Relations Board, which enforces U.S. labor law, to use the courts to aggressively police Starbucks’ labor practices as they also come under scrutiny from shareholders and the U.S. Congress. More details.
Sustainability
Massachusetts – This week, a federal judge approved a compromise between state regulators and industry groups including the Massachusetts Restaurant Association that will allow a voter-approved referendum prohibiting the sale of pork from pigs housed in cramped conditions. The law will now take effect Aug. 24. Voters in 2016 approved a ballot question banning the sale of eggs, veal, and pork from animals held in conditions deemed cruel. The egg and veal regulations already took effect, but the pork portion remained in limbo amid multiple legal battles. As part of the deal, the attorney general’s office and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) will not enforce any new restrictions on “transshipped” pork meat for at least six months. In that span, MDAR will explore a potential regulatory carveout explicitly exempting products that traverse the state but are neither produced nor sold there. More details.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Target – America First Legal (a conservative legal organization headed by staffers of former President Trump) filed suit against the company saying the retailer misrepresented the adequacy of its risk monitoring when customer backlash over LGBTQ-themed merchandise caught it by surprise. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of an investor, names the company, the CEO, and the Board of Directors. The investor claims that the company’s Board misstated its oversight of “social and political risks” to the company, focusing on the wishes of progressive activist investors and failing to account for potential backlash from customers. The suit seeks damages for the decline in Target’s share price caused by the consumer reaction and asks for a judge to rule the company violated U.S. securities laws. More details.
Key Takeaways
- This week, Ohio voters rejected a ballot measure intended to make it harder to amend the state constitution. While the effort was strongly supported by the business community, the vote is being portrayed by many as a significant victory for abortion-rights supporters trying to stop the Republican-controlled state legislature from severely restricting the procedure. The contest was widely seen as a test of Republicans’ efforts nationwide to curb the use of ballot initiatives, and a potential barometer of the political climate going into the 2024 elections. The impacts to the employer community could be significant. In 2024, a measure will likely be on the Ohio ballot that would incrementally increase the minimum wage to $15/hr by 2028 and eliminate the tip credit. If the measure this week had passed, the minimum wage question would have needed 60 percent support to pass but now only needs a simple majority. As a result, minimum wage activists see a clear path to victory on the ballot measure next Nov. The employer community will have to wage a very costly opposition campaign if they have any hope of prevailing.
- This week, the Labor Department announced a new partnership with the National Governors Association focused on helping states and localities better align their workforce development services to match employer needs. The Workforce Strategic Planning Collaborative is apartnership between the department’s Employment and Training Administration and the association’s Center for Best Practices and provides the industry with a structure and process to inform those policymakers of the workplace skills needed in the restaurant industry. Brands that have previously engaged in the workforce development conversation along with state associations should seize the opportunity to be part of the dialogue and encourage workforce development criteria relevant to the industry.
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.