Wages
Connecticut – The governor’s office announced new minimum wage rates for 2025. Effective Jan. 1, the state minimum wage will rise to $16.35/hr, up from its current $15.69/hr. The server wage will increase to $6.65/hr for restaurant workers and to $8.59/hr for bartenders. The state wage is tied to the Consumer Price Index as per minimum wage increase legislation passed in 2019. More details.
Michigan – State officials announced the final wage rates to take effect next year. The standard minimum wage will be $12.48/hr, beginning Feb. 21, 2025, and the tipped minimum wage will be $5.99/hr, or 48 percent of the standard minimum wage. The minimum wage for minors (workers under 18) will be $10.61/hr, 85 percent of the standard minimum wage. Compromise legislation that had been introduced to slow the pace of wage increases and freeze the tipped wage at 38 percent of the state’s minimum wage was not acted upon during last week’s two-day session. Any potential action will be delayed until after the election. More details.
Montana – The state labor department announced that the minimum wage will increase from $10.30/hr to $10.55/hr on Jan. 1, 2025. Montana law requires the minimum wage to be adjusted annually for inflation using the Aug. estimates of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers. The state has no tip credit. More details.
Ohio – The state commerce department announced new minimum wage rates effective Jan.1, 2025. In 2006, voters approved a ballot measure tying the state’s wage to the Consumer Price Index. The current minimum wage rate of $10.45/hr will rise to $10.70/hr and the server wage, currently at $5.25/hr, will increase to $5.35/hr. More details.
Washington – The state labor department sets a new minimum wage of $16.66/hr, effective Jan.1, 2025, up from the current $16.28/hr. The state has no tip credit. More details.
Bellingham, WA – Because the city sets its minimum wage at $1/hr above the statewide rate, the local wage will rise to $17.66/hr on Jan.1. However, in May, Bellingham’s minimum wage will increase again. The 2023 ballot measure that established the citywide minimum wage mandates that, starting May 1, 2025, Bellingham’s minimum wage will be set at $2/hr above the statewide rate. So from May 2025 until the end of the year, Bellingham’s minimum wage will be $18.66/hr and adjust accordingly each year going forward. More details.
Boulder, CO – Next week, the city council will hear and potentially hold a preliminary vote on an ordinance to raise the local minimum wage 8 percent annually for the next three years to $18.17/hr by 2027. If approved, the first increase would take place in Jan. 2025. The ordinance was introduced after a regional effort to simultaneously increase wages involving five Boulder County cities stalled. More details.
Paid Leave
California – The governor signed legislation eliminating a provision in the state’s paid family leave law that allowed employers to require employees to use accrued, unused vacation leave prior to receiving state-provided paid leave. Under previous law, an employer was authorized to require an employee to take up to 2 weeks of earned but unused vacation before, and as a condition of, the employee’s initial receipt of state benefits during any 12-month period in which the employee is eligible. Now employees can utilize the state paid leave law without touching their accrued vacation time. More details.
Pennsylvania – A house committee advanced legislation that would guarantee that all workers employed in the state would earn one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked and could use up to 40 hours of leave per year. It passed along party lines. Final passage is unlikely at this point in the calendar and with Republican control of the upper chamber. More details.
Labor Policy
NLRB – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Fair Choice–Employee Voice Final Rule became effective Sept. 30. The new rule returns to the Board’s pre-2020 policy on blocking charges before an election. It also restores a Regional Director’s authority to delay an election if unfair labor practice conduct is sufficiently serious to interfere with employee free choice. The rule reverses the Board’s 2020 rule requiring Regional Directors to run elections in an election environment “tainted by unfair labor practices.” It removes the 2020 rule’s requirement that when an employer chooses to voluntarily recognize a union that represents a majority of its workers, the parties provide for a mandatory 45-day period to allow the opportunity for a minority of workers to demand an election questioning that choice. The rule also restores the Board’s 56-year-old voluntary recognition bar, respecting the bargaining relationship that the parties have voluntarily chosen, among other policy changes. More details.
NLRB – The U.S. Senate adjourned for a recess and is not set to return until Nov. 12, after the upcoming election. The adjournment came before the Senate was able to vote on two of President Biden’s nominees for the NLRB including Board Chair Lauren McFerran and Joshua Ditelberg, who was nominated earlier this year. It remains to be seen whether the Senate confirms the nominees during a lame-duck session after the Nov. election cycle, which will have a significant impact on the composition of the Board for the next two years. McFerran’s five-year term on the Board expires in Dec. and her confirmation is key to maintaining a Democratic majority on the Board. Given the current make-up of the Board, if McFerran is confirmed when the Senate returns, the Board will retain a Democratic majority until late 2026–even if Trump is elected in Nov. Ditelberg, on the other hand, is being nominated to fill a Republican seat on the Board that has remained vacant since May. More details.
California – The governor signed captive audience ban legislation into law. The California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act prohibits employers from taking adverse actions against or threatening such actions against employees who refuse to attend or participate in meetings where an employer would communicate its opinion about religious or political matters, including meetings about unionization. The ban will be enforced by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, will allow an employee to seek injunctive relief for violations of the bill, and provide for a private right of action to recover damages caused by the alleged adverse action. The bill was sponsored by the California Labor Federation and the California State Council of Teamsters. There are now nine states with captive audience laws on the books. More details.
Maryland – The state’s new heat standard for workers went into effect Sept. 30. Under the new law, Maryland employers whose employees are exposed to the 80-degree temperature threshold must monitor the heat index throughout workers’ shifts, as well as develop and implement a written plan to prevent and manage heat-related illness. They must provide exposed employees access to shade, as well as at least 32 ounces of water per hour. Covered employers must also develop acclimatization schedules that allow workers to gradually increase their exposure to the heat over a period of up to 14 days, either when they’re newly exposed or returning to work after being absent for a week or more. The measure was four years in the making and while a handful of states have similar requirements, Maryland was the first state on the East Coast to implement this type of law. More details.
Grubhub – The company announced a new partnership with portable benefits provider Stride. Grubhub delivery drivers will now have access to no-fee savings accounts through Stride Save, which can be used to cover essentials such as health insurance and retirement savings. Drivers will have a range of insurance options, including dental, vision, and life coverage. Open enrollment for health insurance starts on Nov. 1, 2024, with coverage beginning on Jan. 1, 2025. More details.
Starbucks – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz violated federal labor law by telling a barista in California who criticized the coffee chain’s response to a nationwide union campaign to “go work for another company.” The Board said that the comment by Schultz during a company event in 2022 amounted to an illegal threat that could discourage unionization, upholding a decision by an administrative judge. The decision can be appealed to a federal appeals court. More details.
Labor Activism
Boston, MA – The union representing some 4,000 workers at nearly three dozen Boston-area hotels is threatening an “all-out strike” if the owners of those hotels don’t meet their demands this week. The local union, Unite Here Local 26, said that ever since strikes at various hotels in the city began on Sept. 1, it has “given the hotels more than enough time to come to the bargaining table with a serious and meaningful economic package.” More details.
Starbucks – A restaurant in Bellingham, WA became the 500th unit to vote for representation by the Starbucks Workers Union. It has been nearly three years since the first unit was organized in Dec. of 2021 in Buffalo, NY. Just last week, new CEO Brian Niccol responded to a letter sent to him by the bargaining delegation from Starbucks Workers United, committing to “engage constructively” with the union. He said that he “deeply respects” the right of partners to “choose to be represented by a union.” Collective bargaining sessions between the two sides are currently underway. More details.
Alcohol
Delaware – The governor signed legislation allowing for third-party delivery of alcoholic beverages. The new law allows restaurants, breweries, and other venues with liquor licenses to use contractors to deliver alcoholic beverages. For a fee of $1,000 every other year, third-party services like Doordash and Uber Eats can register for a license from the Office of Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissioner to deliver covered products. The new law prohibits venues that already hold a license to serve alcohol onsite, eliminating the possibility of a restaurant using their own staff to handle deliveries. It also requires any contractors who make these deliveries to be 21 years old, go through a program on responsible delivery, and learn how to detect fake identification. More details.
Key Takeaway
- A new working paper released this week by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at Cal-Berkeley finds that California’s $20/hr fast food wage raised average pay by nearly 18%, didn’t cost jobs, and caused minimal price increases. Despite the organization’s overt bias in favor of the labor community, it is well-respected among rank-and-file California lawmakers. The industry was in command of the headlines when the new wage laws first went into effect but in the last few months, the labor community has turned the tables and the job loss story has been replaced in the news cycle by “rising tide” stories. If the narrative that a $20/hr minimum wage has significant benefit and little downside, then the argument will soon become that an even greater increase would be even more beneficial. And the Fast Food Council may act accordingly. The industry needs to be vigorous in collecting – and disseminating – meaningful data around economic loss if we are to fend off further action by policymakers.
Podcast
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