Wages
Alaska – The state labor department announced that as of Jan.1, the minimum wage will increase to $11.73/hr, up from the current $10.85/hr. The annual increase was mandated by a 2014 ballot initiative that increased the minimum wage and tied it to the CPI going forward. Alaska does not have a tip credit. On a related note, Better Jobs for Alaska is pursuing another ballot initiative for next year that, if passed, would bring the minimum wage to $13/hr in 2025, $14/hr in 2026, $15/hr in 2027, and then be tied to inflation thereafter. More details.
Arizona – The Industrial Commission of Arizona announced that the minimum wage would increase on Jan.1 to $14.35/hr, up from its current $13.85/hr. The increase is a mandated cost of living adjustment per legislation passed in 2016 under threat from a voter initiative. Additionally, advocates are pursuing an additional ballot measure in 2024 – the Arizona Minimum Wage Increase Initiative – which if approved by the voters would push the state wage to $18/hr by 2027, eliminate the tip credit, and be indexed to inflation thereafter. That initiative has until next July to qualify for the ballot. More details.
Hawaii – Per legislation passed in 2022, the minimum wage will increase to $14/hr as of Jan. 1, on its way to $18/hr by 2028. The new server wage for 2024 will be $12.75/hr. More details.
Massachusetts – One Fair Wage announced that a petition to eliminate the tip credit by 2029 has “far exceeded” the 75,000 signature threshold required to secure a spot on the Nov. 2024 ballot. Organizers said, in fact, that they had submitted over 100,00 signatures. Massachusetts law requires some level of proportional balance of signatures throughout the state (not all signatures can come out of one densely-populated city like Boston) and local clerks will decide the validity of signatures. A final decision on whether the measure officially qualifies won’t be made until next July. More details.
Missouri – The minimum wage is increasing by 30 cents in 2024 from $12/hr to $12.30/hr – and for the first time it will be based on inflation instead of a voter-approved amount. Missouri voters approved Proposition B in 2018, which allowed the state’s minimum wage rate to increase 85 cents each year from 2018-2023. Going forward, the minimum wage rate will be based on an increase or decrease in the CPI’s cost of living. The wage increased from $7.85/hr to the current $12/hr under Proposition B. More details.
Mountain View, CA – The local minimum wage will increase to $18.75/hr on Jan.1, up from the current $18.15/hr rate. Since 2019, the city’s minimum wage has risen automatically each year to keep pace with regional inflation, leading to the 3.3 percent increase that will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024. That’s down from a 6 percent increase that the city saw this past Jan. The city council passed an ordinance in 2015 which called for the minimum wage to be raised in stages, from the $10.30/hr rate that was in effect at the time to $15/hr on Jan. 1, 2018. From that point on, the ordinance calls for the city’s pay floor to get adjusted annually based on any increase in the regional CPI. More details.
Renton, WA – A ballot measure was approved for Feb. which would raise the city’s minimum wage to $19/hr by July 2024. Businesses with 15 employees or fewer would have to comply by 2026. The current minimum wage is $15.74/hr and the state has no tip credit. It is possible, however, that the city council enacts the identical provision when it meets Dec. 4. More details.
Live Nation – The company announced it will pay its 5,000 employees and service crew working at its club venues a minimum of $20/hr. Moving forward, base pay for hourly club staff will start at $20/hour, while supervisor roles will start at $25/hour with opportunity for advancement in the company. The increases will impact more than 5,000 crew members who serve as box office attendants, production crew, artist hospitality, guest services, ushers, parking attendants, cleaning crews, and sustainability coordinators, among others. More details.
Paid Leave
Colorado – The state opened its new online portal for residents to begin the process of applying for paid family leave benefits which become effective Jan.1. The Family & Medical Leave Insurance program, approved by voters in 2020, will partially replace workers’ wages while they go on leave for childbirth, adoption, serious health conditions, and more. The measure is funded by premiums equal to about 0.9 percent of a worker’s wages, although that could rise to 1.2 percent. Workers and employers are generally expected to split the cost. The program started collecting fees this year and the benefits start in the new year. Every private employee in Colorado will be eligible to have a portion of their wages covered for 12 weeks for the birth, adoption, or fostering of a new child, medical care for them or their family, addressing the impacts of domestic violence, and military service of a family member. More details.
Labor Policy
Labor Department – The Wage & Hour Division of the agency released a bulletin to its field team of investigators clarifying when they should be assessing fines and penalties – and increasing existing ones – when dealing with non-life threatening child labor law violations. The new language will likely result in more aggressive investigations and higher fines for violators. The action is, in part, a result of similar pending legislation in Congress that has stalled in the house. More details.
National Labor Relations Board – The National Restaurant Association along with its 52 state association partners sent a joint letter to Congress expressing their “collective concern regarding the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) final rule, “Standard for Determining Joint Employer Status.” Stating that “the implications of the NLRB’s rule are profound and far-reaching for the restaurant industry, a sector that is not only a cornerstone of the American economy but also a vital source of employment and community engagement” the letter calls on Members to support the pending CRA resolutions to reverse the NLRB’s overreaching Joint Employer rule.
U.S. Senate – A bipartisan coalition of more than a dozen senators co-signed a letter to Lina Khan, the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), regarding pending new regulations on franchising. The senators urged Khan to ensure that any new rules “benefit the franchise business model and support our constituents who utilize the franchise business model to open and grow their businesses.” The FTC concluded a public comment period on new franchising regulations over the summer, which the agency told CNBC drew more than 5,500 comments, indicating “broad interest” in the regulations. More details.
Pennsylvania – The house approved legislation that would grant unemployment benefits to striking workers. The measure passed on a 106-to-97 vote, earning support from every Democrat as well as four Republicans. It now heads to the GOP-controlled senate, where its future is less certain. The bill amends Pennsylvania’s unemployment compensation law to stipulate that striking workers are not considered to have voluntarily quit. Leaving work on one’s own accord typically makes a person ineligible to receive unemployment compensation. The bill also removes existing language in the law that says workers who are unemployed due to a labor dispute are only eligible for benefits if they have no direct interest in the dispute and are not members of an organization participating in the dispute – a clause which currently locks union members out of benefits during strikes. More details.
Labor Activism
Baltimore, MD – One Fair Wage postponed until early next year a rally to announce the introduction of legislation to eliminate the tip credit in the city. Though a rally is still being planned for Jan., no details have been released on when legislation will be introduced or what the bill language might be. Maryland’s current tipped wage is $3.63/hr. More details.
Starbucks – A coalition of labor unions led by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), announced that it has nominated three director candidates for election to the Starbucks Board of Directors at the 2024 annual meeting of shareholders. The coalition, which owns less than 0.00002 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, is effectively using the campaign as a means to ratchet up its efforts to unionize Starbucks’ workforce. The campaign is the logical consequence of the universal proxy rules implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last year. As expected, such rules have opened the gates for social activists like labor unions to hijack the annual shareholder meeting process as a very public platform to pressure corporate management and advance their agendas. More details.
Wells Fargo – In a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), bankers and tellers at Wells Fargo branches in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Bethel, Alaska declared their intent to join the Communications Workers of America’s Wells Fargo Workers United (WFWU). Wells Fargo is the country’s fourth largest bank with almost $2 trillion in assets and over 200,000 employees but has faced a series of scandals in recent years, from fake accounts to alleged mass overtime pay violations. Workers at the bank have made previous but unsuccessful attempts to form a union. More details.
Misc.
Swipe Fees – A new advocacy group, the Lower Credit Card Fees Coalition, has been launched to advocate for passage of the Credit Card Competition Act. Members of the group include the American Economic Liberties Project, Americans for Financial Reform, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Service Employees International Union, and the Merchants Payments Coalition, which includes the National Restaurant Association. The Credit Card Competition Act would mandate that retailers in many cases have the right to route payments through networks unaffiliated by the credit card providers, potentially lowering the fees they have to pay. More details.
Key Takeaways
- The National Restaurant Association’s letter to Congress regarding the pending new rule on joint employers is important. Not only is the industry most likely to be impacted now on the record urging passage of Congressional resolutions to stop the rule, but the state associations, representing their constituents back home, are also now on the record. This provides an excellent opening for brands to leverage their franchisee footprints and empowering franchisees to build on those efforts and continue urging Congress to act.
Podcast
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