Wages
Florida – House and senate committees advanced legislation that would allow employers to pay below the minimum wage for employees involved in a “work-study, internship, pre-apprenticeship, or other similar work-based learning opportunity.” Employers in Florida are already allowed to pay sub-minimum wages to certain workers, such as people ages 19 and younger during the first 90 days of employment and to students working part-time in vocational training programs. The house version would extend that timeline to a year. The legislation advanced along party lines and final passage is likely. More details.
Maine – A state house committee heard legislation to abolish the state’s minimum wage in favor of a living wage based on the MIT Living Wage Calculator. The bill has little chance for passage but may be indicative of where the wage conversation is headed. The bill would divide the state into three regions: Coastal, Northern, and Portland Metropolitan and assign the wage increase based on the calculator’s results for one adult with no children as of Jan. 1, 2025. It would go into effect Jan. 2026. According to the sponsor, the 2025 minimum hourly living wage for the Northern region should be $20.67hr, $22.04/hr in the Coastal region, and $23.74/hr in Portland. Aside from the expected opposition from the business community, even the state Labor Department testified against the bill as unworkable. More details.
New Hampshire – The house voted to table legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15/hr by 2028, effectively killing the bill for the year. The state follows the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr but has a slightly higher tipped wage of $3.27/hr which will remain in effect. More details.
New Mexico – The legislature adjourned for the year before legislation to raise the minimum wage and eliminate the tip credit could be heard. The measure is dead for the year. The bill called for a $5/hr bump to the current $12/hr minimum wage rate starting in 2026, eliminating the tip credit and then tying the wage to the Consumer Price Index going forward. The bill did advance out of one house committee and will likely reappear next year. More details.
Virginia – Legislation to increase the minimum wage to $15/hr by 2027 was vetoed by the governor. The legislation passed both chambers with narrow partisan votes and it is unlikely that the veto will be overridden. More details.
Paid Leave
Missouri – House-passed legislation repealing the new paid sick leave law passed by the voters last Nov. advanced out of a senate committee. Proposition A, which is scheduled to take effect May 1, requires employers with business receipts greater than $500,000 a year to provide at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Employers with fewer than 15 workers must allow workers to earn at least 40 hours per year, with larger employers mandated to allow at least 56 hours. The law also gradually increases the minimum wage to $15/hr by 2026 and while the pending legislation does not address the wage itself, it eliminates the cost of living index in the original measure. The senate is expected to approve the bill and the governor has announced his support of it. On a separate track, the state supreme court is still deliberating on a lawsuit, filed by the state chamber of commerce and other business groups including the Missouri Restaurant Association, arguing the election results in support of the recent ballot measure to increase the minimum wage must be set aside because its fiscal note summary is “insufficient and unfair.” More details.
Virginia – The governor vetoed legislation that would have mandated 30 hours of paid leave for all employees in the state effective 2026. The bill included language that would have made it a civil penalty for employers not to comply. It would have also granted any employee the right to bring civil action against their employer if denied the sick leave as described within the bill. As with the minimum wage, the votes were largely along party lines and the veto will not be overridden. More details.
Labor Policy
EEOC – President Trump nominated the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Acting Chair Andrea Lucas for a second term at the agency. The nomination of Lucas, whose current five-year term expires in July, comes as she has ratcheted up scrutiny of workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and anti-discrimination protections for transgender people since Trump named her acting chair in Jan. Since then, the agency has issued informal guidance saying that many common workplace DEI policies may be illegal. Additionally, just last week, Lucas sent letters to 20 major law firms demanding detailed information about their diversity policies and suggesting they could be unlawful. More details.
NLRB – President Trump has nominated Crystal Carey, a partner at large management-side law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, to the role of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel. Carey’s name was transferred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for a nomination hearing. Carey has been at Morgan Lewis for nearly seven years, moving to the firm after eight years as an NLRB attorney. The firm has been at the heart of prominent ongoing labor disputes, representing Amazon, SpaceX, Apple, and Tesla and arguing that the NLRB’s structure is unconstitutional. Carey has been critical of the Biden-era board, telling NLRB members at a Nov. panel discussion that she believes they’ve attempted to “completely eliminate the rights of employers” to have conversations with workers about the decision to unionize. More details.
Food Policy
Oklahoma – Legislation that would have banned well over a dozen food additives including dyes, preservatives, and other ingredients did not meet a legislative deadline in the senate and is dead for the year. If passed, the measure would have required the disclosure of certain additives and authorized the state agriculture department to issue a “stop-sale” or “notice of violation” order to violators. The department would have also been authorized to assess administrative penalties. More details.
West Virginia – The governor signed legislation banning several artificial dyes from foods sold statewide, including two preservatives by 2028. The dyes are used to add vivid colors to a range of products, many designed to appeal to children, including breakfast cereals, snack foods, baked goods, and candies. The state’s law will ban seven food dyes: Blue No. 1, Blue No. 2, Green No. 3, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Red No. 40, and Red No. 3 (already banned federally) and two preservatives – propylparaben and butylated hydroxyanisole, or BHA. While California has banned a similar but narrower list of additives, this bill is the first of its kind in response to the sweeping Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda of the new administration. Nearly 20 other states have similar legislation pending. More details.
Sustainability
SEC – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it voted to end its legal defense of its climate disclosure rules, effectively walking away from a Biden-era regulation requiring companies to report on climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions, without actually having to rescind the rules. In a statement announcing the commission’s decision, Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda, who had voted against the initial rule, called the rule “costly and unnecessarily intrusive.” Uyeda was appointed acting chair after the resignation of prior Chair Gary Gensler in Jan., following the election of Donald Trump. Trump’s nominee, Paul Atkins, is currently undergoing the confirmation process, and has also opposed the climate reporting rule. The rule faced a series of legal challenges immediately following its release, with nine court petitions filed within 10 days, including a lawsuit against the rule filed by 25 Republican state attorneys general, led by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, and another appeals court motion requesting a stay of the rules led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. California has its own similar set of reporting requirements that are set to be released later this year. More details.
Misc.
Pennsylvania – Two special elections were held this week, one for the state house and one for the senate. Democrats won a vacant house seat (previously held by a Democrat) breaking a temporary 101-101 tie in the house and restoring a one-seat majority for Democrats. In the senate, a major upset has Democrats picking up a Lancaster County seat altering the Republican majority which now stands at 27-23. More details.
Key Takeaway
- We are nearly three months into most of the state legislative sessions and by the end of next week, ten states will already have adjourned. So far, the industry’s solid messaging on wages and tips along with a more favorable political climate, have taken much of the bite out of labor activists’ zeal for wage increases and tip credit elimination with their efforts in New Mexico, Illinois and Maryland floundering and our relief efforts in Michigan, Missouri and Florida progressing. One Fair Wage and their allies certainly aren’t going away but ongoing industry diligence in this space will continue to keep them at bay.