Skip to main content

North Carolina Democrats Introduce Bill to Raise Minimum Wage Rates, Require Equal Pay, Provide Paid Sick Leave, Expand Collective Bargaining, & Ban the Box


Ok, this one is a doozy.  Hang with me here while I break down a bill that North Carolina Democrats introduced in the State Legislature last week.  To say this bill, the Economic Security Act of 2017, covers a lot (if not most of the 'traditional' employment law topics) would be an understatement.


Minimum Wage

Currently, the hourly minimum wage rate in the state is set at $7.25/hour.  This bill would seek to scale in a wage hike to get the hourly minimum wage rate to $15/hour by 2021.  (And from $2.15/hour to $5/hour for hourly tipped workers).

Equal Pay

Employers in the state would be required to pay male and female workers equal wages 'for the same quantity and quality of the same classification of work' (with exceptions carved out for seniority or other factors that would result in different pay...although that last exception seems somewhat vague, doesn't it??).  

Paid Sick Leave

Employers would also be required to allow their employees to accrue an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.  Perhaps one of the interesting portions of this part of the bill is that employees would be allowed to use that paid sick leave either for their own illness or to care for a sick family member.

Collective Bargaining

If approved, this bill would prohibit the longstanding ban on collective bargaining for unions that represent government employees. 

Ban the Box

Under this portion of the bill, government agencies would be banned from asking about an applicant's criminal history until the employer made a 'conditional offer of employment'.  Readers might recall that this ban the box measure is not unlike other similar measures that have been introduced around the country before (phrased another way, this part of the bill could garner support from both sides of the aisle).  


With all that being said, the North Carolina state legislature is controlled by Republicans who could, in essence, prevent any portion of his bill from becoming law.  In fact, Representative Pricey Harrison (a Democrat from Greensville) concedes that at the very least, the minimum wage portion of the bill is not likely to pass.  However, other portions, such as ban the box (as referenced above), could find enough bi-partisan support to succeed.  Interesting to see which (if any) Republicans jump on board with the entirety of this bill (or perhaps which portions of the bill Democrats can get enough Republicans to support).



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,...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more