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What I’ve Been Reading This Week

 

Minimum wage hikes and a potential labor development out on the East coast are two noteworthy topics I want to highlight this week.  I would pay particular attention to the Virginia Governor election in the coming weeks as that has the potential to have major ramifications as to the state’s right to work law.

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


Walgreens Set to Raise Hourly Pay Rate to $15/Hour Starting In October

Earlier this week, Walgreens announced that starting in October, it would phase in a $15/hour pay rate for its employees.  The pay increase, which will be phased in through next November, is estimated to result in an increase in labor costs of nearly $450 million.  Granted, while a large scale employer like Walgreens can absorb and defray these costs likely with minimal struggle, attention now turns to how smaller employers can afford to keep up in an already tight labor market.


Outcome of Virginia Governor’s Race Could Result In Repeal of Statewide Right to Work Law

As some readers might have seen, there is an upcoming election in Virginia for Governor later this year.  The race, featuring Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin against Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe, remains tight heading into the election.  As a result, some hot button issues have garnered attention, including recent union support for McAuliffe after speculation has grown that he would seek to repeal the state’s right to work law if elected.  (In broad terms, right to work laws prohibit union membership as a condition of employment and bar non union employees from being forced to pay union dues for collective bargaining by the union.)  It should not be much of a surprise that McAuliffe, a Democrat, favors repealing the state’s right to work law.  With that being said, with the race neck and neck, it will be interesting to see how things play out heading into the home stretch. While repeal of the state’s right to work law is not guaranteed if McAuliffe wins…a Youngkin victory would likely shut the door on the matter entirely.

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