Wages
Maryland – Legislation was introduced in both the house and senate to put a constitutional amendment before the voters in 2026 that would eliminate the tip credit. To be approved, the measure must be approved by at least three-fifths of the members of both chambers before it is eligible to go before the voters. The state’s minimum wage hit $15/hr on Jan. 1 but the cash wage for tipped employees remained at $3.63/hr. More details.
Michigan – The deadline for any compromise on minimum wage and the tip credit is now just two weeks away. While the Republican-led house has passed (with significant Democratic support) a bill to increase the minimum wage to $15/hr by 2029 and keep the tipped wage at 38 percent of Michigan’s minimum wage, no real action has taken place in the Democrat-led senate. If no deal is reached by Feb. 21, the minimum wage will increase from $10.56/hr to $12.48/hr and the cash wage for tipped employees will increase from $4.01/hr to $5.99/hr. More details.
Missouri – A house committee heard numerous pieces of legislation that would amend the voter-approved, new minimum wage and paid leave mandate in the state. In Nov., voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition A, the ballot measure to increase Missouri’s minimum wage to $13.75/hr on Jan. 1, up from $12.30/hr. It will increase again to $15/hr on Jan. 1, 2026, with future adjustments tied to inflation. Along with increasing the minimum wage, Proposition A requires some employers to provide paid sick and family leave starting May 1. Businesses with revenue of $500,000 or more must provide one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to five days per year for businesses with fewer than 15 employees and seven days per year for larger businesses. Republican leaders are sponsoring measures that would change the effective dates, definition of covered employers, and repealing the inflation adjustments among other items. No votes were taken. More details.
Virginia – Legislation to eliminate income taxes on tips was defeated in a house committee. An additional effort to include similar language in the state budget was also rebuffed. Democratic objections largely centered on wanting the provision as part of a larger package to increase the minimum wage and potentially adjust the tip credit. No deal was reached but the proposal could still reemerge. If the legislation had passed, Virginia would have been the first state to pass “no taxes on tips” legislation. More details. State taxes, not federal.
Paid Leave
Michigan – A senate committee heard compromise legislation to amend the pending state law scheduled to go into effect Feb. 21 which would require employers with fewer than 10 employees to offer up to 40 hours of paid sick leave and 32 hours of unpaid leave while businesses with 10 or more employees must offer a full 72 hours of paid sick leave. The new proposal, sponsored by a Democrat, would raise the definition of a small business from less than 10 employees to less than 25 employees. Those small businesses would then have to provide employees with 40 hours of paid sick leave and 30 hours of unpaid sick leave at the beginning of the year, instead of the 40 hours of paid leave and 32 hours of unpaid leave accrued through the year. It would also provide employers the option to provide workers a minimum of 72 hours of paid earned sick time at the beginning of a year. No votes were taken. More details.\
Labor Policy
EEOC – President Trump named Andrew Rogers as the Acting General Counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). If confirmed, Rogers will replace Karla Gilbride, whom Trump terminated last week. Rogers is the second Trump selection to lead the agency, after the president named Andrea Lucas acting chair on Jan. 21, as widely expected. Rogers previously served as chief counsel to Lucas, and, prior to joining EEOC, served in the Wage and Hour Division at the Labor Department. More details.
NLRB – Five days after President Trump fired NLRB Member Gwynne A. Wilcox and NLRB General Counsel Jennifer A. Abruzzo, the president also fired the NLRB’s second-ranked attorney, NLRB Deputy General Counsel Jessica Rutter. Rutter briefly served as the NLRB Acting General Counsel after Abruzzo’s termination on January 27, 2025. Days later, the president appointed William B. Cowen as the new acting general counsel. Cowen has served as NLRB Regional Director for the Los Angeles Regional Office (Region 21) since 2016 and previously served as an NLRB member from January 22, 2002, to November 22, 2002, after having been appointed by the then-President George W. Bush. The Senate must confirm any eventual appointee by President Trump to serve as the full-time NLRB General Counsel. More details.
NLRB – Former National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox sued the Trump administration on Wednesday over her abrupt removal from the agency last week. Wilcox is asking the court to declare that she remains a “rightful member of the Board and that the President lacks authority to remove her” outside of the process outlined by the NLRA. She contends that the White House violated a federal statute that said NLRB board members can only be removed “for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.” The White House’s position that it holds near-unlimited authority to shape the executive branch to the president’s liking could tee up the Supreme Court to revisit a precedent known as Humphrey’s Executor that, for nearly a century, has served as the foundation for the constitutionality of independent agencies. The outcome of the case will likely have ramifications for other independent agencies in the executive branch and determine whether they can be insulated from the president’s reach. More details.
Utah – Legislation is on its way to the governor that would limit public sector collective bargaining and stop union representatives from doing union work while on public time. It would also bar employees receiving paid leave for union activities and require unions to pay to use meeting spaces that other groups have to pay for, and to report annually to the labor commission the number of members they have and the money they spend. The governor is expected to sign. More details.
Labor Activism
Amazon – An independent group of workers at an Amazon warehouse in Garner, North Carolina, are seeking to form the second unionized warehouse at Amazon in the country. Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE) filed to hold a union election at the warehouse and collected the necessary signatures. The election to represent 4,300 workers at the 700,000 sq. foot warehouse in the suburbs of Raleigh is scheduled to be held Feb. 10-15. More details.
Costco – Days after boosting its top wages to more than $30/hr hour for most nonunion U.S. store employees, the company reached an agreement with its union workers, represented by the Teamsters. Before the agreement, the company announced that starting in March, workers at the top of the pay scale will receive a $1/hr raise to $30.20/hr, followed by additional $1 raises each year for two years. Employees on the low end of the scale will receive a $.50/hr raise, making their hourly wage $20/hr. Terms of the new agreement with Teamsters affects about 18,000 workers across six states – only about 8 percent of its workforce. Details of the agreement have not been released. More details.
Freeze Latino Movement – In response to the threats from President Trump to impose a 25 percent tariff on products imported from Mexico, some in the Latino community are calling for a massive boycott against major U.S. companies, including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Walmart, and others. Under the slogan “Freeze Latino Movement,” the campaign has gained traction on social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter), where users have shared messages urging people to stop consuming products from brands they believe do not support Latinos. A rumor has circulated on social media claiming that Coca-Cola laid off more than a thousand Latino employees in Texas, who were later detained and deported. The company has neither confirmed nor denied this information, but dissatisfaction within the Latino community has grown, intensifying calls for the boycott. More details.
National Day Without Immigrants – On Feb. 3, the so-called Day Without Immigrants movement swept across the country as thousands of activists and demonstrators took to the streets to protest President Trump’s immigration policies. The protests were designed to highlight the role immigrants play in the nation’s economy and society, as hundreds of businesses across the country closed their doors and thousands of individuals refrained from work and school to show solidarity with the cause. A similar event was held in 2017, just after President Trump took office in his first term. More details.
Whole Foods – In a filing with the NLRB. the company said that because of President Trump’s decision to fire Gwynne Wilcox from the Board, the NLRB now lacks the authority to certify a recent election at a Philadelphia store because there is not a working board quorum. A regional office will investigate Whole Foods’ objection but will not be able to enforce a decision until at least one more person is seated on the five-person board. The workers at the store voted 130-100 to be represented by the UFCW. More details.
Sustainability
Starbucks – The company has become the second quick service restaurant retailer (Chik-fil-A being the first) to become a member of the U.S. Food Waste Pact. The pact is a national voluntary agreement that works with waste-generating food businesses to collect and analyze data about food waste in their operations, share best practices through working groups, and pilot and scale solutions through intervention projects. The pact is an initiative between nonprofits ReFED and the World Wildlife Fund. Starbucks’ participation follows other waste-reduction efforts the retailer has undertaken such as its FoodShare initiative. More details.
Key Takeaways
- Many governors, particularly in red states, are creating DOGE-like initiatives in their own states to leverage the populist appeal of reducing bureaucracies and increasing efficiency. Brands and state restaurant associations should pay close attention to these efforts to protect existing state partnerships around workforce development, tourism funding, health and safety training and a myriad of other relationships. While we in the industry find these programs vitally important, some politicians may view them otherwise. We need to be vigilant.
- A lawsuit was filed this week to block President Trump’s executive orders that target diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the U.S. government, the private sector, and academia, alleging that he exceeded his authority in issuing them. The plaintiffs are a coalition of university professors, diversity officers, the Mayor and City of Baltimore, and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. The involvement of ROC is twofold: the executive order covers “equity-related” grants and contracts of which ROC has many; and it furthers their working relationship with the elected leaders of Baltimore where their partners at One Fair Wage are vigorously pursuing tip credit elimination. This is yet another indication of ROC and One Fair Wage’s escalating focus on race as a wedge issue to attack the traditional restaurant business model.