Tag Archives: Minimum Wage
State minimum wage increases helped 4.3 million workers, but federal inaction has left many more behind
Posted on January 10, 2017 January 10, 2017 by wjpnola
News from the Economic Policy Institute shows how many workers are receiving a raise with the new year.
On January 1, 19 states increased their minimum wage, lifting the pay of over 4.3 million workers. This is the largest number of states ever to increase their minimum wages without an increase in the federal minimum wage. In seven of these states (Alaska, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, and South Dakota), the increases …
Source: State minimum wage increases helped 4.3 million workers, but federal inaction has left many more behind
Who will REALLY benefit from a higher minimum wage?
Millions more workers will be eligible for overtime under new federal rule
Posted on May 18, 2016 December 5, 2016 by wjpnola
Today the Obama administration and Secretary of Labor Tom Perez unveil a new rule that expands eligibility for overtime pay. The new regulations increase the income threshold below which salaried workers must be paid time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40 per week.
President Obama and Secretary of Labor Tom Perez announce new overtime regulations.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2016/05/17/millions-more-workers-would-be-eligible-for-overtime-pay-under-new-federal-rule/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_overtime-825pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Mayor Landrieu Signs Living Wage Ordinance for New Orleans City Contract Workers
On August 18, Mayor Mitch Landrieu signed into law a new living wage ordinance for New Orleans' city contractors and financial assistance recipients.
"If you're working full-time, you should not be living below the poverty line," Landrieu said.
The ordinance was sponsored by Councilmember Jared Brossett. It will apply to city contractors with contracts worth at least $25,000 and to companies or organizations that receive more than $100,000 in financial assistance from the city, including subsidies and tax breaks, over a 12-month period. Covered businesses must also provide workers with seven days of paid sick leave annually.
Read more here: http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/13205062-123/landrieu-signs-living-wage-ordinance
Federal Court Strikes Down Rule on Pay for Home-Health Workers
Late Wednesday afternoon, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., struck down a proposed change to the Fair Labor Standards Act that would have required private and state-managed home health care agencies to pay their employees overtime and minimum wage.
Home health attendants and aides, disproportionately African American, female wage earners—neither nurse nor maid, but a combination of both—have historically been singled out for denial of basic labor rights. The DOL issued a new rule in September of 2013, which would have finally included home-care workers under FLSA coverage. The overall rule was set to take effect on Jan. 1 of this year, but the portion struck down Wednesday was put on hold until Jan. 15 pending the court's decision.
Home health aide Maria Fernandez, right, helps Bernardo Vega, 88, left, make the bed as she performs household chores for Vega and his wife. Fernandez works for United Home Care Services which provides health care and home care services for elderly and disabled adults. Photograph by Lynne Sladky — AP
"The affected workers—often known as personal-care aides, home-health aides or certified nursing assistants—typically bathe, dress and feed elderly or disabled patients. A large percentage of them are hired directly by people with disabilities or their families. Others are employed by private companies that provide services. Workers typically are paid with Medicaid funds administered by states.
"Many home-health workers already are paid more than the federal minimum wage—currently $7.25 an hour—but don't get paid time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours a week. Many also have no health-care coverage themselves."
Read more from Time, Fortune and the Wall Street Journal.
An Ounce of Prevention – Anticipating Changes to Companionship Regulations
Posted on November 11, 2014 December 5, 2016 by wjpnola
"Enforcement of a final rule that takes effect Jan. 1, 2015, to extend Fair Labor Standards Act minimum-wage and overtime protections to certain direct-care workers is to be delayed, but employers should not hesitate to ensure timely compliance with the rule's minimum-wage, overtime and record-keeping requirements. Effective Jan. 1, home-care agencies and third-party employers must pay at least the federal minimum wage and overtime to jointly or solely employed direct-care workers, such as a certified nursing assistant, home-health aide, personal care aide, caregiver or companion.
JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES
Home care aides often make substantially less than their peers in hospitals and nursing homes
"The key change that is applicable to private employers and to states is going to be tracking worker hours and better record-keeping practices," said Sarah Leberstein, a lawyer with the National Employment Law Project and co-author of its Aug. 2011 "Fair Pay for Home Care Workers: Reforming the U.S. Department of Labor's Companionship Regulations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act," report. "It shouldn't be rocket science. But some employers haven't had to track hours worked by [home-care] workers," she said, noting that this is especially true of states that thought of home-care workers as independent providers.
"Workers should also be instructed on marking time worked, and employers should consider innovative ways to keep time records, Leberstein said. Under the final rule, "if the employee spends more time working than was anticipated, the employee must be paid," Joseph K. Mulherin, a shareholder in Vedder Price's Chicago office who advises employers on employment-law issues, said in a June 13, interview with Katarina E. Wiegele for Bloomberg BNA's FLSA Litigation Tracker. "If the employee's sleep time, meal periods or other periods of free time are interrupted, the interruption must be counted as hours worked."
"In home-care work arrangements, there will undoubtedly be situations where the employee is working without the employer's knowledge, e.g., because the employer is sleeping," Mulherin said. "Thus, it is critical that employers require their employees to accurately self-report all actual work hours."
The Labor Department Home Care web portal has employer resources and a page for workers to download a work calendar or link to a Smartphone app to track hours. For more information on the changes, see the Department of Labor Website: Home Health Care and the Companionship Services Exemption Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) or the Comparison of Current vs. Proposed Companionship Regulations. Or read more about innovative ideas for complying with the changes at Bloomberg BNA.
$10.10 for Louisiana is Fair
"In his 2015 budget presentation to the New Orleans City Council this month, Mayor Mitch Landrieu introduced a minimum wage hike for city employees that would bring them to the $10.10 figure — which, if approved, will add $596,000 to the proposed $537 million budget. Last month Landrieu signed his name to a letter addressed to Congress supporting passage of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which would set the federal minimum wage at $10.10 an hour.
"But if it's good enough for New Orleans city employees, why not the rest of us? Unfortunately, no Louisiana city can make that change because Louisiana law forbids municipal governments from setting their own minimum wage. The New Orleans City Council passed a resolution in January urging Gov. Bobby Jindal and state legislators to raise the minimum wage statewide, but it was largely a symbolic act. This year, then-State Rep. Jared Brossett's bill to make the state minimum wage $10.10 an hour was rejected in committee, as was another proposal to let local governments set alternative minimum wages.
"Any change in the state or local minimum wage, therefore, will have to come at the federal level. A $10.10 minimum wage would mean a pay raise for more than 500,000 workers in Louisiana. The Louisiana Budget Project (LBP) estimates a higher minimum wage would pump $689 million into the state's sluggish economy by giving workers more spending power. Critics of a higher minimum wage say it would discourage employers and lower employment, while the LBP cites the example of Oregon, which lured eager Idaho workers with a minimum wage of nearly $2 per hour more. Both sides can point to statistics, but it's worth noting that states with no minimum wage laws, like Louisiana, are some of the poorest in the nation — and the most dependent on federal aid."
Read more in the Gambit here.
Low-Wage Workers Demand $15 Wage in Several Protests
Last Thursday, protestors "took to the streets in New York, Washington and Phoenix to draw attention to their campaign to change labor practices in retailing and other low-wage industries like fast-food restaurants. By not paying their workers a living wage, the activists say, such businesses squeeze the very people they hope to sell to.
"I can't afford anything," said LaRanda Jackson, 20, who earns $8.75 an hour working on the sales floor at a Walmart in Cincinnati. "Sometimes I can't afford soap, toothpaste, tissue. Sometimes I have to go without washing my clothes."
Fourteen Walmart employees and 12 others were arrested and charged with civil disobedience Thursday. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
"Ms. Jackson was among 14 Walmart employees and 12 others who were arrested and charged with civil disobedience Thursday after staging a protest outside the Manhattan residence of Alice Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune, demanding that Walmart set a base pay of $15 for all its workers — much like the demands of the fast-growing movement of fast-food workers." Read more by Hiroko Tabuchi and Steven Greenhouse of the NY Times here.