Skip to main content

One to Keep An Eye On: $15/Hour Minimum Wage & Paid Leave (Massachusetts)


As with many employment and labor law related cases (and bills) that are being litigated around the country, there are always a few that stand out.  This is one to keep an eye on.


At the end of July, Raise Up Massachusetts announced it would push to put both a $15/hour minimum wage proposal and a paid leave requirement on the ballot next November.

Under the minimum wage proposal, the state's minimum wage would rise to $15/hour by 2022.  The current hourly wage rate, $11/hour, would increase by $1 every year until it reached $15.  Thereafter, the hourly wage rate would increase automatically at the same rate as the cost of living in the state.

In regard to the paid leave plan, workers in the state would receive up to 16 weeks of paid leave to care for a new child or an ill or injured family member (or for needs arising from a family member's military service).  The benefit would be capped at $1,000.00/week.  Of course, the question is always how this leave would be paid.  Under the current proposal, the leave would be paid from a trust fund which would be paid by employers (though employers could require their employees to pay up to half of the required contribution).

Although we are still about 15 months away from voters having the chance to vote on these proposals, this is one to keep a close eye on.  Massachusetts, a rather progressive state, should be applauded for taking paid leave one step further by potentially offering leave for needs arising from a family member's military service.  I cannot recall many paid leave plans which include that provision.  As for the minimum wage proposal, it is certainly possible that could face harsher criticism...but given the successful passage of several minimum wage bills last November, perhaps minimum wage will not be a taboo ballot initiative next year in Massachusetts.


For additional information:  https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2017/07/31/group-to-push-for-expanded-paid-leave-15-minimum.html

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