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What I've Been Reading This Week


Over the coming months, we will start to see more and more coverage of candidates running for President in 2020.  For the sake of this blog, I will attempt to keep that topic focused on how the candidates stand on relevant labor & employment law matters.  In doing so, a recent article from Politico offers a timely analysis of workplace harassment matters and a related piece of legislation that has been introduced in Congress (and supported by several Democratic Senators running for President.)

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


Tipping Hotel Housekeepers? Some Do, Others Do Not

Tammy La Gorce at The New York Times wrote an article back in 2017 that provided readers with an interesting question:  In an industry where many employees often do not make much money, should it be customary for hotel housekeepers to be tipped by guests?  Although this article is from a few years ago, it is still timely and worth a read.  As the article notes, many hotel housekeepers find they cannot make ends meet, based upon the rate of pay they receive from their employers.  That leaves many housekeepers leaving envelopes in hotel rooms for hotel guests to leave a tip for the cleaning services.  Some employers frown upon this practice while others go so far as to provide the envelopes themselves (with the hotel logo on the envelope) or give hotel guests the option to leave a tip on their credit card when checking out of their room.  On the other hand, some hotel guests feel affronted by this request and counter that it is the employer's responsibility to pay their employees a livable wage, rather than requiring them to solicit tips to make ends meet.  While there is no clear cut answer either way as to whether tipping hotel housekeepers should become the norm, with rising costs of living that do not mirror stagnant wage growth, I suspect this practice will continue.



Readers might recall that some Democratic candidates for President in 2020 have been dogged by claims of workplace harassment in their campaigns (or prior campaigns) and Congressional offices.  On Tuesday, several Democratic candidates for President, including Senators Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren voiced their support for the BE HEARD Act.  This proposed legislation would strengthen discrimination protections for LGBTQ employees, ban the use of mandatory arbitration and non-disclosure agreements for harassment claims, eliminate the tipped minimum wage, and make it easier for employees to report on the job harassment.  As Alice Miranda Ollstein at Politico reports, this legislation is noteworthy in so much that it would tackle workplace harassment across the board (rather than in more limited circumstances as prior legislation had addressed.)  It will be interesting to see how the BE HEARD Act advances through Congress, with many voters paying close attention to the matter heading into next year's election.

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