Wages
New York City – Multiple pieces of legislation has been introduced that would close a loophole allowing grocery delivery apps like Instacart to avoid the $20/hr delivery minimum wage for restaurant delivery drivers. The first bill would require that the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection expand the current minimum wage to include all “contracted delivery workers who deliver goods for a delivery service.” It would also require the department to study the working conditions of these workers and require app companies to provide workers with some equipment pertinent to their jobs. The second bill would specifically require “third-party grocery delivery services,” like Instacart, to meet or exceed the minimum pay rate guaranteed to deliveristas. The committee will hold a hearing on both bills Dec. 9. More details.
Paid Leave
Maine – Payroll contributions will commence Jan. 1 to begin funding the state’s recently-enacted paid family and medical leave program. Under the plan, eligible workers will have 12 weeks of paid time off available for family or medical reasons including illness, to care for a relative, or for the birth of a child. Workers will not be eligible for benefits until May of 2026. More details.
New York – The state’s amended paid leave law takes effect Jan. 1. Under the amended first-of-its-kind law, employers will be required to provide pregnant employees up to 20 hours of prenatal leave for certain healthcare services relating to their pregnancies. Employees can use prenatal leave “for the health care services received by an employee during their pregnancy or related to such pregnancy, including physical examinations, medical procedures, monitoring and testing, and discussions with a health care provider related to the pregnancy.” The prenatal leave must be paid at 100 percent of the employee’s regular rate of pay and like other types of leave under existing state law, an employer is not required to pay employees for unused leave upon separation from employment. More details.
Labor Policy
U.S. Senate – Legislation to expand the provisions of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) was introduced matching companion legislation already pending in the house. The bill would increase the hiring tax credit from 40 percent to 50 percent of eligible wages when employers hire targeted populations (SNAP recipients, ex-felons, etc). The bill does not, however, extend the expiration of the credit beyond its current sunset date of 2025. While the current bills are unlikely to be acted on in this Congress, their introduction lays down a marker for inclusion in the broader tax reform package coming in 2025. More details.
Labor Department – The agency has appealed a federal judge’s recent decision that struck down the Biden Labor Department’s new overtime requirements. In that case, brought by the State of Texas and a group of more than a dozen business organizations, Judge Sean D. Jordan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found that the Labor Department had exceeded its statutory authority with its overtime rule. It had sought to raise the minimum salary for the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime exemptions for executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) employees and “highly compensated employees” (HCE). On January 1, 2025, the EAP threshold was set to increase to $1,128/wk, the equivalent of a $58,656 annual salary, and the HCE exemption was set to increase to $151,164/yr. The decision vacated the 2024 overtime rule in its entirety, including the EAP and HCE threshold increases that went into effect on July 1, 2024, and the part of the rule that would have adjusted the salary thresholds every three years based on up-to-date wage data. The ruling thus left in place minimum levels set under a 2019 DOL rule, which set the EAP exemption at $684 per week ($35,568 per year) and the HCE exemption at $107,432 per year. It is unclear whether the incoming Trump Administration will continue the appellate process. More details.
Labor Department – The agency unveiled a proposal that would prevent companies from paying disabled workers less than other employees. The proposed rule, even if it is made final, faces several hurdles. It is likely to confront legal challenges and could be reversed under the incoming Trump administration. There has been debate about whether the department has authority to alter the program or if that power rests solely with Congress. The statute, enacted as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, has let employers obtain 14(c) certificates from the Labor Department that authorize them to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25/hr. The department began a “comprehensive review” of the program last year, and this week, it proposed a rule that would bar new certificates and phase out current ones over three years. About 800 employers hold certificates allowing them to pay workers less than minimum wage, affecting roughly 40,000 workers. More details.
OSHA – The Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA) announced a 15-day extension of the public comment period on its sweeping proposed safety standard for workplace heat hazards. The new deadline to submit comments is Jan. 14, according to a regulatory filing. The agency is also planning to hold a public hearing on the proposal in mid-June, though that could be scrapped by the new Trump administration. The government has already received more than 16,000 submissions on the safety standards, which has faced intense pushback from an array of organizations representing employers. The Biden administration took several years to develop the standards under OSHA which it estimated would cover some 36 million workers in both indoor and outdoor settings where the heat index can exceed 80 degrees. It also included additional protections, such as mandatory rest periods and monitoring protocols, that kick in when the heat index goes beyond 90 degrees. The incoming administration could move to substantially revise OSHA’s proposal or opt to rescind it altogether. More details.
Minneapolis, MN – The city council sustained the mayor’s veto of a city council-passed ordinance to create a new local labor standards board of workers and employers to recommend industry regulations for pay, safety, and equity. The defeated proposal would have mandated that the board be composed of 15 members: five employer representatives, five employee representatives, and five “community stakeholder” group representatives. The council would appoint 12 members and the mayor would pick three. In his veto message, the mayor said that the allotted participation of the business community was “negligible” and said he would support a version of the proposal that features an equal split on the board between employees and employers, as well as an equal split between mayoral and council appointments. The original council vote was 9-3, but two council members flipped their votes and sided with the mayor. It is unclear what next steps proponents may take. More details.
Labor Activism
Whole Foods – Workers at a store in Philadelphia have filed to hold a union election, the first union filing at the supermarket chain since Amazon acquired it in 2017. Workers at the store had organized around safety issues at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic but about a year ago began discussing unionizing in response to issues such as low pay, high workloads, and intense productivity demands similar to those reported in Amazon warehouses. A date for the union election has yet to be set, but UFCW Local 1776 expects a date to be set by the NLRB very soon. More details.
Nutrition
U.S. Senate – This week, the HELP committee held a hearing regarding government oversight of our nation’s food supply and calling into question the allowable amounts of preservatives, dyes and other additives contributing to the nation’s obesity problem. The hearing demonstrated that leaders of both parties have concerns about chemical additives, the importance of labeling, the marketing of junk food and general food safety. While no votes were taken, the hearing was important to lay down markers for both parties as the incoming administration – and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in particular – are expected to aggressively wade into this space. More details.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
Walmart – The nation’s largest private employer is the latest company to make changes to its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives under pressure from conservative activist Robby Starbuck. The company said it would not renew a racial equity center it created following the 2020 murder of George Floyd and it would no longer participate in an annual benchmark index from LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign. Walmart also committed to monitoring third-party items in the Walmart marketplace for “inappropriate sexual and/or transgender products marketed to children;” reviewing all Pride funding; and no longer using the term LatinX in official communications. More details.
Key Takeaways
- As an annual fall precursor to the impending legislative sessions, many partisan groups of state lawmakers across the country meet and compare notes on agenda items important to both political parties. Of late, the tone and tenor of many of these groups, most surprisingly on the Republican side, has been aggressively anti-corporate and contemptuous of corporate efforts toward diversifying their workforces. The pushback on corporate DEI programs has escalated significantly and brands need to be aware that the environment in this space – which has changed significantly in the past year – is increasingly more toxic and employers may more than ever find themselves in the position of defending their HR programs and hiring practices. Brands should prepare accordingly.