Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week


The week back after Thanksgiving break is normally always hectic.  This year in particular was no exception.  While I would normally prefer to highlight several articles, this week I am going to keep it brief as I have been traveling for work quite a bit and have not had as much time as I would have liked to read through articles.

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

A few weeks ago, a three judge panel from the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin issued a temporary injunction to block Austin’s paid leave ordinance passed by the City Council back in February.  That paid leave ordinance, a rarity in Texas, would have required most employers in the city to offer their employees six to eight days of paid leave for a year of work, depending on the size of the employer.  Critics of the ordinance scrambled to block its implementation before its expected start, October 1st.   (The ordinance was temporarily blocked in August while the 3rd Court of Appeals heard arguments on the matter).   In the opinion, Chief Judge Jeff Rose, Justice David Puryear, and Justice Scott Field found the ordinance to be unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the Texas Minimum Wage Act.  The City if Austin is apparently examining its options after the injunction was issued.

Readers might recall that there is a similar measure, HB 222, that has been introduced in the Texas Legislature to block this type of paid leave ordinance.  While the Court’s temporary injunction does not necessarily impact that legislation, I would expect the injunction to embolden the Congressmen that are seeking to secure HB 222’s passage during this legislative session.


The Ongoing Fight to Narrow the Gender Wage Gap

The Institute For Women’s Policy Research published a well written report recently that examined, among other topics, how much less women in the workforce earn compared to their male counterparts.  This study suggests that women actually earn $.49 for every $1 that a man makes...a far cry from the ‘traditional’ notion of women earning $.80 for every $1 that a man makes.  While this report is not necessarily intended to provide a solution, it gives readers food for thought on the matter.


Amazon’s $15/Hour Wage Rate: Other Employers Are Not Necessarily Falling In Line

Amazon’s announcement earlier this year that it would increase its starting hourly wage rate to $15/hour garnered quite a bit of attention and press.  While the company has been lauded following their announcement, some speculated that other large employers would follow suit and also raise their starting hourly wage rates.  However as Dan Monk at WCPO reports, WalMart and Kroger have both stated that they are not necessarily going to follow Amazon’s lead.  At Kroger, the company has noted that starting hourly wages at its warehouse locations are higher than $15/hour and the average hourly rate at its stores is around $14/hour, not including pension and healthcare benefits.  (Readers might recall that Amazon did catch a bit of flack when it was reported that the company was withdrawing benefits for workers that were to receive the $15/hour minimum wage rate).  As for WalMart, the company reported on a conference call that the current it’s hourly wage rate had risen to $11/hour and the company was constantly studying ‘labor market hotspots’ every two weeks to determine whether to increase hourly wage rates at certain stores.  For the time being, Amazon’s hourly wage hike does not appear to have influenced any other large scale employers to follow suit.

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