Wages
Michigan – The state treasury office announced their planned increases to the minimum wage, using an inflation adjustment based on the change in consumer prices from Jan. 2019 to June 2024. Under the plan, the current $10.33/hr minimum wage would jump to $12.48/hr in 2025, $13.29/hr in 2026, $14.16/hr in 2027, and $14.97/hr in 2028 (a 45 percent hike over four years). Additionally, the attorney general’s office asked the state supreme court for additional clarity and if none is offered, the current plan will go into effect. Legislative leaders have not indicated publicly if they will take up the issue again. More details.
Oklahoma – Proponents of a pending ballot initiative to increase the minimum wage to $15/hr by 2029 may be running out of time to make the 2024 ballot. Legal challenges from business groups have delayed the measure’s final approval and may bump the measure to the next election cycle. For context, the secretary of state last week verified the measure and submitted the official signature count to the state supreme court. Oklahoma law sets a 10-business day protest period once the official notification is posted to a statewide newspaper. Should the petition clear the protest period, it would then go to the state election board and the governor’s office. The governor’s office would, at that point, set the date for the election. If the governor doesn’t act by early next week, it is unlikely to meet the deadline for this year’s ballot. More details.
Albuquerque, NM – The city council rejected a proposed ordinance to align the city’s minimum wage rate, which is $11.10/hr, with the state minimum wage rate of $12/hr. Because the state rate is higher, it is already the prevailing minimum wage in Albuquerque. An amendment was previously offered to also align the server wage with the state’s as well, but that would mean a significant reduction in the server wage from the city’s mandated $7.20/hr to the state’s current server wage level of $3/hr. The sponsors of that amendment had since decided to withdraw it in the face of intense opposition. More details.
Portland, ME – The city council rejected an effort to put two proposed questions on the Nov. ballot. One sought to increase the minimum wage to $20/hr and the other sought to eliminate the tip credit. Similar effort in 2022 failed at the ballot box. Voters, at that time, rejected a minimum wage increase to $18/hr as well as the elimination of the tip credit. More details.
Labor Policy
FTC – A federal judge in Texas blocked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ban on non-compete agreements from taking effect in two weeks, dealing a major blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to bolster workers’ power. The judge ruled that the FTC exceeded its legal authority in issuing the rule earlier this year and that the FTC wrongly “dismissed any possible alternatives, concluding that either the pro-competitive justifications outweigh the harms, or that employers had other avenues to protect their interests.” The ruling is just one of several challenges to the FTC regulation pending in various federal courthouses including one in Florida that also cut against the government’s position. Another court in Pennsylvania declined to stop the rule. The conflicting rulings, each in a different appellate circuit, increase the likelihood of the U.S. Supreme Court eventually weighing in on both the non-compete rule and the FTC’s broader regulatory authority. The rule was set to take effect Sept. 4. More details.
EEOC – The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has called off a one-day furlough, saying that it is no longer necessary to ensure it does not exceed its budget. Late last month, the agency announced plans to furlough all employees for one day – Aug. 30 – telling them they must take up to eight hours of unpaid leave on that date. It blamed “mandatory and inflationary budget increases” that didn’t mesh with Congress keeping the commission’s funding at 2023 levels. The agency announced this week it had saved enough money to be able to rescind the planned one-day furlough. More details.
NLRB – A regional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) director ruled this week that Amazon is a joint employer of some of the thousands of contractor delivery drivers who deliver its packages. The e-commerce giant has previously argued that it should not be responsible for alleged union busting or required to bargain with driver unions, because the drivers who ferry packages to consumers’ doors in Amazon-branded vans work for third-party contractors called delivery service partners, or DSPs. The judge found that the company failed to bargain in good faith after delivery drivers in Palmdale, California, voted to unionize in 2023, a first for the company’s delivery drivers. The regional NLRB director also found that Amazon had illegally targeted drivers in Palmdale with termination, threatened workers, and held unlawful captive audience meetings. More details.
Labor Activism
Glendale, AZ – An appellate court affirmed a county judge’s previous order that the city of Glendale must process a $20 hr ballot initiative that the city had rejected on constitutional grounds. This decision does not guarantee that the initiative will make the Nov. ballot but requires the clerk to verify signatures while the case’s larger questions regarding potential violation of the state’s single subject rule are resolved. Proponents of the initiative, the Hotel and Event Center Minimum Wage and Wage Protection Act, submitted 8,900 petition signatures (almost 50 percent more than the required number). The initiative establishes a $20/hr minimum wage baseline for hotel and event center employees and outlines details for yearly pay increases and overtime earnings, among other provisions. It would cover employees of any hotel within city boundaries as well as workers at event centers larger than 20,000 square feet including concert halls, stadiums and convention centers. More details.
Interchange Fees
Illinois – The Illinois Bankers Association, American Bankers Association, America’s Credit Unions, and Illinois Credit Union League filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against the Illinois Attorney General challenging the enactment of the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (the “IFPA”). In May, the legislature passed an omnibus budget bill (HB-4951) that includes the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, which the governor signed into law in early June. Effective July 1, 2025, the IFPA prohibits the collection of debit and credit card interchange fees for sales taxes, excise taxes and gratuities if the merchant informs the acquiring bank of the amount of these taxes and gratuities. The 74-page complaint seeks a declaratory judgment that the IFPA is preempted by federal laws, unconstitutional, and invalid as applied to any participant in the payment system, and to permanently enjoin the state from taking any investigatory or enforcement actions under the IFPA. More details.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Brown-Forman – The company announced that it will stop linking bonuses and pay to DEI progress, end its participation in an annual ranking of companies with an LGBTQ-friendly environment and throw out its plans to push for a more diverse group of suppliers. The company is the latest in a growing line of major firms that rely heavily on a red state clientele that has reacted to conservative “anti-woke” pressure and the threat of Bud Light-style boycotts. More details.
Misc.
FDA – The FDA (Food & Drug Administration) announced lower voluntary targets for daily sodium intake, part of the second phase in its plan to reduce the amount of sodium consumed in the U.S. The new set of voluntary targets, if finalized, would support reducing average individual sodium intake to about 2,750 mg/day, which would be 20 percent lower than consumer levels before 2021. The new targets will have a 3-year compliance date once finalized after a public comment period ends in mid Nov. The targets are voluntary and not legally enforceable but reflect the agency’s recommendation to manufacturers. More details.
Key Takeaways
- The NLRB Regional Director ruling that Amazon is a joint employer of its subcontracted delivery drivers has broad implications. It immediately threatens Amazon, and the business models of some of its competitors. And, as the case is reviewed by the full Board, a broad ruling could capture others as well (just as Browning-Ferris did). Employers will want to watch developments closely.
- As the DNC Convention concluded this week, McDonald’s place in Vice President Kamala Harris’ bio was solidified as a key talking point for campaign surrogates. The industry would be wise to use this attention to advantage and drive home our message of opportunity.
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.