Media outlets have been all over the announcement this week by Amazon that the company will raise the current $11/hour minimum wage for its lowest employees across the United States to $15 an hour beginning November 1 of this year. Voters in Arkansas will likely be asked next month to consider increasing the current state…
Read More »It was a major upset and a total shock to the political establishment when back in June, New York bartender Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez handily beat 20-year Congressional incumbent Joseph Crowley for the democratic nomination for New York’s 14th Congressional District. Crowley was Chairman of the Democratic Caucus, essentially the 3rd most powerful democrat in the US…
Read More »The surprise is not that the minimum wage for state workers in North Carolina is increasing to $15 per hour, rather that the Republican legislature overrode a Democratic gubernatorial veto to make it happen. The generally-reliable red state of North Carolina seemed to flip roles recently when democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoed an Omnibus Spending…
Read More »The appeal by Miami Beach of lower court rulings that blocked implementation of a separate local minimum wage has been accepted for review by the Florida Supreme Judicial Court. You may recall that Miami Beach passed an ordinance back in 2016 increasing the minimum wage within the city to $13.31 by 2021. The ordinance passed…
Read More »The Lone Star State is fighting on a couple of fronts to prevent local communities from mandating paid sick leave benefits on private employers. Last week, a state appellate court blocked an Austin ordinance that, effective October 1, would require private businesses provide paid sick leave to employees. A lower court had previously rejected the…
Read More »Not too dissimilar from its New York counterpart, a similar requirement will also take effect next month in South Carolina, of all places. The South Carolina legislature passed the Pregnancy Accommodations Act earlier this year and it was signed into law by Governor Henry McMaster on May 17. The Act amends the South Carolina Human…
Read More »The Kentucky Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in a challenge to the state right to work law. Kentucky labor leaders sued Governor Matt Brevin after he signed right to work into law in January 2017. The state legislature adopted it in response to a number of counties throughout the Bluegrass State passing their…
Read More »Although it is still not official, it seems much more likely that voters in Arkansas will get the chance to decide on a proposal to increase the state minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2021. Advocates submitted an additional 45,000 signatures to the Secretary of State last Friday. The ballot initiative, which proposes to…
Read More »In a surprising ruling on Wednesday, the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals restored a discrimination challenge brought against the city of Birmingham Alabama by African-American fast-food workers. The suit, initially filed in 2016, alleged that the state’s mostly white legislature violated the civil rights of black workers by nullifying a new minimum wage in…
Read More »Paid leave mandates are becoming more and more contentious in the state of Texas these last few weeks as the city clerk in the city of San Antonio certified a paid family leave initiative for the November ballot. In response, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is already involved in litigation challenging an Austin paid…
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