Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week: Fight for $15 Edition


The past week, there has been a lot of attention paid to the minimum wage fight as workers across the country have walked out, held rallies, and protested for an increased minimum wage rate.  This "Fight for $15" movement originally started with fast food workers back in 2012, but has now grown to included home healthcare workers, janitors, and others in low paying careers.  As a result, I wanted to focus this post on that topic so readers can get caught up on the issue.

As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week.


Workers in over 200 cities took part in rallies and protests earlier this week in an effort to raise awareness for a minimum wage increase.  Some rallies were smaller and were hardly noticed while others drew bigger crowds and massive media attention.  Perhaps the biggest win at this time (aside from an increased minimum wage rate), is the national (and international) attention that has been drawn to the issue.










Following the vote last November from Bay Area voters to raise minimum wage rates, Palo Alto is considering raising its minimum wage rates from $9/hour to $10.30 with annual adjustments to follow.  Jason Green discusses how the City Council's Policy and Services Committee will decide the issue later this month, which if approved, would apply to all but a small group of employees in Palo Alto who work more than two hours per week.  



The Bangor Daily News has a good article on Portland's progression towards a higher minimum wage of $8.75/hour.  Although the Mayor of Portland had been pushing for a $9.50 minimum wage rate, the City Council's finance committee voted to endorse a less expansive plan.  At this stage, the plan will go to the full City Council.  Time will tell if this will actually pass...but something tells me with a less expansive plan already approved (and the increased focus on minimum wage increases), this one might become a reality sooner rather than later.



This article from The Washington Post, while shorter, highlights the support that a potential Democratic candidate for President has given the minimum wage fight.  Former Maryland Governor, Martin O'Malley, recently spoke out in support of increased minimum wage rates and his belief that areas around the country will move toward $15/hour wage rates.  While he could be pandering to voters, he does have a record of supporting a minimum wage increase in Maryland while serving as Governor.

Comments

Post a Comment

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
Post a Comment
Read more

Happening Tomorrow: Connecticut’s Minimum Wage Increases

For those employers and employees alike in Connecticut, mark your calendars as tomorrow, the minimum wage rate increases in the state from $13/hour to $14/hour. This wage hike comes after Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont had signed Public Act 19-4 into law in 2019 which progressively raised the state’s hourly minimum wage rate every year for five years.  In fact, next year, the hourly wage rate will top out at $15/hour.  Beginning in January of 2024, the hourly wage rate will be indexed to the employment cost index. For additional information:   https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2022/06-2022/Governor-Lamont-Reminds-Residents-That-Minimum-Wage-Is-Scheduled-To-Increase-on-Friday
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more