Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week

It seems like the theme this week was minimum wage.  Unsurprisingly, I expect there to be increased coverage of the minimum wage issue in the coming weeks and months as other states push the minimum wage issue.  And on that note, Go USA!


A Few Key Notes for California Employers to Prepare for the Minimum Wage Increase July 1st

Nancy Yaffe has a few things that California employers should review ahead of the scheduled minimum wage increase on July 1st.  While the checklist is rather short, it includes several important items that employers should not forget.


Seattle Leading the Charge for Highest Minimum Wage Rate in the Country

Hourly employees may want to start looking at jobs in Seattle after the Seattle City Council voted to up the hourly minimum wage rate to $15 beginning in 2017.  While the increased rate will be phased in over several years, Seattle is poised to become the leader in the highest minimum wage rates afforded to hourly workers.  This article breaks down a few key elements of what to expect going forward.


7 Common Mistakes Made Regarding Conference Calls

We all, at one point or another, have likely participated in a conference call at work.  Some people love them, others have less than warm feelings about it.  This is a good article by Drew Hubbard in which he identifies 7 common mistakes made regarding conference calls and has an idea on how each mistake can be avoided.  This is one of the better, practical articles I have read recently.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per