Wages
Anaheim, CA – The city council unanimously voted to postpone consideration of a proposed $25/hr minimum wage ordinance for certain hotel workers, but instead authorized a study to determine the economic impacts of the proposal. The powerful union UNITE HERE had been aggressively pursuing the ordinance and openly criticized the council after the vote. More details.
Ft. Collins, CO – By consecutive 4-3 votes, the city council voted down two proposals to raise the local minimum wage. One measure would have increased the minimum wage to $16.65/hr by 2026. The other would have increased the wage to $17.29/hr by 2026. Starting in 2027, the wage would have increased at a rate of no less than 2 percent, and no higher than 5 percent per year, in accordance with the consumer price index. The minimum wage for tipped workers would have also increased along the same schedule, but $3.02/hr lower than non-tipped workers, per state law. More details.
Paid Leave
U.S. Congress – Senators Bernie Sanders and Kirsten Gillibrand reintroduced two different bills this week. One would create a national paid family and medical leave law and the other would create a national sick leave law. The sick pay proposal would entitle workers to 56 hours of paid leave annually to address their own illness and the paid family and medical leave bill entitle them to 12 weeks of paid leave annually to care for others. Both bills have almost no chance for passage. More details.
Minnesota – Legislation is on its way to the governor’s desk creating a state-run paid family and medical leave program. The program offers up to 20 weeks of time off for a serious medical condition or caring for a family member, including bonding with a newborn. Both chambers of the legislature passed a paid leave bill earlier in the session, but differences had to be worked out in committee and each chamber agreeing to the changes. Benefits will start in 2026 as well as the additional payroll tax increase to fund the program. More details.
Maine – Details were released this week on proposed paid family and medical leave legislation. If the bill as currently drafted is approved this session, workers at businesses with fewer than 15 employees would receive up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a newborn baby or for other reasons, such as an extended illness or to care for a sick or disabled family member. Payroll taxes would begin in 2025 with the first benefits to be paid out starting in May 2026. The benefits would be paid for with a 0.7 percent to 1 percent payroll tax, with employers and employees each contributing half. More details.
Labor Policy
U.S. Senate – Bipartisan legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House that would allocate $20 million in grant funds for states and localities to pilot portable benefit programs. Eligible models would have to provide any number of work-related benefits and protections, such as retirement savings, workers compensation, life or disability insurance, sick leave, training and educational benefits, health care, and more. The Senate sponsors, Democratic Senator Mark Warner and Republican Senator Todd Young, introduced similar legislation in the last Congress. More details.
California – The Assembly Appropriations Committee advanced a joint employer bill focused squarely on the quick service restaurant sector. It would require that a fast food restaurant franchisor share with its fast food restaurant franchisee all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for the franchisee’s violations of prescribed laws and orders, or their implementing rules or regulations. The bill would authorize enforcement of those provisions against a franchisor, including administratively or by civil action, to the same extent that they may be enforced against the franchisee. The language is similar to the joint employer language removed from AB-257, the FAST Act. And, the sponsor of the FAST Act is sponsoring this bill. More details.
Oregon – Legislation is on its way to the governor that would require the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division (Oregon OSHA) to raise its minimum fines to align with federal OSHA standards. In some cases, fines could increase by more than 1000 percent. It would also require the state worker safety division to conduct comprehensive inspections of any workplace where a worker dies or a business commits three or more “willful” or repeated violations in a one-year period. The bill would require Oregon OSHA to issue fines between $1,116 and $15,625 for each serious violation committed by an employer. Currently, the division’s minimum adjusted fine for a serious violation is only $100. The law will go into effect immediately upon signature. More details.
Washington – The governor signed legislation guaranteeing unemployment insurance and paid family and medical leave benefits for transportation network drivers like Uber and Lyft. Last year those same drivers received a guaranteed minimum wage and paid sick leave. The hours on which unemployment-insurance eligibility will be based is double the passenger platform time, which the ride-hailing companies will be required to report to the state. For the purposes of the paid family or medical leave, a driver must have worked at least 820 hours in Washington during either the first four of the past five quarters (or the last four quarters) before submitting for leave. The total hours worked will be calculated by taking total earnings and dividing by the state’s minimum wage. Drivers will have to pay premiums into the program and will be reimbursed by the ride-hailing companies. More details.
Chicago, IL – The newly-installed mayor, Brandon Johnson, issued his first bundle of executive orders this week. One of the orders calls for the creation of a new position, the Deputy Mayor for Labor Relations. The position is “responsible for working with all city agencies and departments to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of Chicago; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights, including working with relevant authorities to help enforce workers’ statutory rights.” Noted in the preamble of the order was the language, “Whereas, the city has an obligation to advance workplace equity and to protect and expand the right to organize for all Chicagoans.” More details.
Labor Activism
California – The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced legislation requiring the Health Department to make a list of all certified food handler training programs along with the cost of each program available on its website by Jan. 1, 2025. Local public health departments would be required to provide a link of this page on their website, or include the same list on their website. In addition, the bill would require an employer to pay the employee for any cost associated with the employee obtaining a food handler card. That includes but is not limited to the time it takes for the employee to complete the training, the cost of the food handler certification program, and the time it takes to complete the certification program. The bill further requires an employer to relieve an employee of all other work duties while the employee is taking the training course and examination. And, an employer would be prohibited from conditioning employment on an applicant or employee having an existing food handler card. The bill was originally filed in response to the New York Times piece regarding the National Restaurant Association and its ServSafe program. More details.
Sustainability
California – The Senate Appropriations committee advanced legislation that would require all companies earning at least $1 billion in annual revenue and doing business in the state to provide information on their global carbon footprints starting in 2026, including emissions from direct operations, energy use, and supply chains. The bill would be more stringent than the SEC’s proposed climate disclosure rule, which would only apply to publicly traded companies and wouldn’t require all of them to disclose supply-chain emissions also known as Scope 3. The disclosures would require third-party verification and would be handled by the California Air Resources Board, which would contract with a nonprofit organization to create a public database. The bill would allow the attorney general to bring civil action against non-compliant companies, a scaling back of the previous version’s proposed authority to levy fines for violations. It has already advanced out of two committees. More details.
Key Takeaways
- The labor community and their allies at the University of California, Berkeley have released a new study entitled, High Minimum Wages & the Monopsony Puzzle. Not surprisingly, it extols the virtues of higher minimum wages. Researchers examined 47 large U.S. counties where the minimum wage had reached $15/hr by the first quarter of 2021, and compared their wage levels and employment figures to those of similar counties that hadn’t raised the minimum wage since 2009. They focused specifically on fast-food workers, so as to avoid the complexities introduced by tipped wages. Researchers found that the employment impacts of minimum wage hikes produced a slight increase in job growth, but higher minimum wages were associated with substantial increases in employment. Whether credible or not, the labor community continues to prioritize investment in research and data on the issue, in contrast to the business community.
- The industry should strongly consider coming to the table with Senators Warner and Young to discuss the concept of portable benefits. Different approaches are appearing at the state and local level. If we don’t engage we run the risk, once again, of ignoring the issue until it’s too late and ceding control to our political adversaries.
Podcast
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