Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week


Tough to narrow things down this week as I read through some great articles and updates on a wide range of employment and labor law related topics.  With quite a bit of troubling news unfolding across the world over the past few weeks, I hope this post can serve as a bit of a breather and change of pace for readers looking for a bit of levity and more "light hearted" reading.

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


Department of Labor Withdraws Interpretations Addressing Joint Employment & Misclassification of Employees As Independent Contractors

On Wednesday, the Department of Labor ("DOL") withdrew its written interpretations which addressed joint employment and the misclassification of employees as independent contractors.  Although these were informal guidance documents, they were roundly criticized for taking a broad view of the employment relationship under the Fair Labor Standards Act.  Note, these interpretations were issued by the DOL during the Obama Administration.  Although the DOL stated that the withdrawal of these interpretations should not be taken as a change in the legal responsibilities of employers, given the change in administrations, I do not find this development to be a surprise. (Given the expected shift in the direction of the DOL in favor of employers.)


Bipartisan Plan Proposed For Paid Family Leave

This week, a bipartisan group published a proposal that could bridge the gap and help make paid family leave a reality across the U.S.  As Aparna Mathur and Isabel Sawhill at Time write, American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution released a proposal which would require eight weeks of federally paid parental leave for both working mother and fathers with 70% wage replacement up to $600/week.  For those unfamiliar with the fight for paid family leave/paid parental leave, Bernie Sanders has previously called for 12 weeks of paid leave while President Donald Trump recently announced support for 6 weeks of paid leave.  Whether this new proposal helps get paid family leave across the finish line is impossible to predict...but it has given supporters of paid family leave a sense of optimism that this will become a reality, sooner rather than later.



Jeff Cohen at WNPR writes that earlier this week, the Connecticut State Legislature failed to pass a paid family leave bill that was working its way through the Senate.  Although Democratic Senators in the state championed the bill, which would have provided for 8 weeks of paid family and medical leave in its first year for established employees, the bill was ultimately tabled when it was determined it did not have enough support to proceed.  Perhaps supporters of this failed bill can turn their efforts toward a national paid family leave bill instead...which certainly appears to be the most realistic possibility for the time being.


Minneapolis Moves Closer to a $15/Hour Minimum Wage For All Workers

On Tuesday, the Minneapolis City Council drafted a proposal which would raise the hourly minimum wage rate in the city to $15/hour for all workers, regardless of the size of the employer.  However, the proposal would provide that employers with more than 100 employees would "front end load" higher pay hikes early while employers with fewer than 100 workers would be allowed to phase in the minimum wage hike more slowly.  With that being said, the proposal would phase in the minimum wage increase by 2022 and is significant in the fact that it raises hourly wage rates across the board.  Keep an eye on this one...but I expect this proposal will likely become a reality in the coming months.

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

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

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
Post a Comment
Read more