Here we are, late in the day on the 31st as I put the finishing touches on this post. As with any final post for the year, I wanted to note a few key developments over the past twelve months before we get to a few of the articles I wanted to highlight this week.
There were some noteworthy developments at the local level, including Washington D.C. banning non-compete agreements, the West Hollywood City Council approving a premium pay ordinance for large grocery store employees, and Orange County (Florida) enacting a ban the box measure.
Granted, at the statewide level, there were also a few key topics that came about over the past year, including Arizona amending the Arizona Civil Rights Act to provide workplace protections for pregnant workers in the state, Illinois adding a new section to the Illinois Human Rights Act that makes it a civil rights violation for an employer to use an individual’s criminal record in any employment decision unless one of two narrow exceptions are met, Connecticut enacting a law which requires employers in the state to disclose the salary range for open positions to both applicants and employees, Delaware approving a $15/hour minimum wage rate by 2025, and California approving a bill that will prohibit disabled workers from being paid less than the statewide hourly minimum wage rate.
Of course, let us not forget some labor law related news such as President Joe Biden abruptly terminating the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel, the National Labor Relations Board finding that employers can lawfully prohibit employees from customizing a work email signature block, some Portland Oregon Voodoo Doughnut workers attempting (and failing to unionize), strikes becoming commonplace in certain industries, such as at McDonald’s, John Deere, and Kellogg’s, Amazon workers in Alabama getting another opportunity to vote on unionization, and at least one Buffalo area Starbucks voting to unionize.
Not to mention the “few” coronavirus related posts sprinkled in over the past twelve months…
As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.
Readers will recall that the prolonged strike at Kellogg’s had led many to wonder (if not expect) that there would be no end in sight after the company indicated it would bring in replacement workers to cover for the nearly 10,000 workers on strike. At long last, after the strike went on for nearly three months, a week or so ago it was announced that a new five year agreement had been accepted by the company and the union.
Effective tomorrow, the hourly minimum wage rate for any worker in San Diego that works at least two hours per week will increase from $14/hour to $15/hour. Readers might recall that the statewide minimum wage rate is also increasing on January 1st. For any employer with 26 or more employees, the hourly pay rate will rise to $15/hour. For any employer with 25 or fewer employees, the hourly pay rate will rise to $14/hour. Nevertheless, for employers in San Diego, the local pay rate will supersede the statewide rate. For those impacted by this pay increase…you have a few hours to make sure you are ready to implement this hourly pay hike.
Comments
Post a Comment