Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week: International Minimum Wage Edition


Shorter week in the office coming back from New York and handling a few matters out of town for work.  As a result, it was another week where I only had a few spare minutes to read through some articles.  I normally do not post much in the way of international developments in the labor and employment law field.  However, this week I came across some good articles on developments in the UK and Russia that I think warrant a special post.

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


Rising Minimum Wage in the UK to Cost Over 1 Billion Pounds

Good article from Forbes on the predicted impact that the new minimum wage in the UK will have on businesses.  Chancellor George Osborne's decision to raise the minimum wage next year is predicted to cost private employers over 1 billion Pounds.  Note, these predicted costs include wages and non-wage labor costs (such as employers' National Insurance contributions).  Quite a steep cost for raising minimum wage rates, huh?



Beginning January 1, 2016, the minimum wage rate will increase to 6,204 rubles (the equivalent of about $87) in Russia.  Russian President Vladimir Putin recently authorized the 4% hike in minimum wage.  However, given the inflation rate in Russia that is predicted to be close to 15% next year, the hourly wage will have actually fallen by 7.5%...  


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