Almost a full year and a half ago, the US Department of Labor (DOL) officially rid the federal regulatory bureaucracy of the so-called 80/20 Rule, which governed minimum wage calculations and requirements for tipped employees when they perform ‘non-tip’ functions. Since then however, individual states have sought to adopt their own versions of the 80/20…
Read More »The New Jersey Department of Labor (NJDOL) has proposed new regulations that would revise the definition of “wages” in the Garden State to exclude “tips” from an employer’s obligation relating minimum wages. Under the proposed regulations, a “tipped employee is any employee engaged in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives…
Read More »As always seems to be the case, there’s much happening on a broad array of issues in New York. First off just last week, Cuomo gave his approval and signed a new law that will give some small businesses the right to cure a default and thereby avoid costly fines in many regulatory first-offense cases.…
Read More »Two federal agencies this week again extended the public comment period on pending regulations. The comment period on the proposed DOL amended tip-pooling rule, which was scheduled to end this past Monday was extended by the Wage and Hour Division due to an outage on the federal website, www.Regulations.gov. After the outage was resolved, the…
Read More »As more states and localities have rushed to mandate higher wages, paid leave benefits and predictive scheduling (Fair Workweek laws), many business interests and economic-focused organizations have cautioned about the impact these mandates may have on business over time. It would appear that those cautions are starting to come to fruition if one looks more…
Read More »As we’ve anticipated, the Florida Minimum Wage petition has met the signature threshold and is headed for the ballot in November 2020. The Florida Division of Elections has officially certified over 768,000 voter signatures (766,200 are required for 2020 petitions). The petition, which will appear on the 2020 ballot as Amendment 2, will increase the…
Read More »On Monday of this week, the Department of Labor (DOL) released yet another amended tip-pooling proposal. The latest iteration however, only applies to employers who do not take a tip credit. It will allow employers to pool tips from front-of-the-house workers and share them with back-of-the-house employees who aren’t normally tipped. This most recent change…
Read More »That seems to be the clear message being sent by a number of restaurant employees to SEIU and the Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC). Bartenders and servers have joined forces to create a website, Our Industry Our Voice, through which they advocate for the preservation of the tipped wage (and the tip credit). The website…
Read More »It ain’t perfect, but it’s an acknowledgement that economic conditions – and costs of living – differ across the country depending on the region one may be working in. Representative Terri Sewell of the Alabama 7th Congressional District has proposed a federal regional minimum wage that may be gaining some traction in the democrat-controlled US…
Read More »After battling all through last year over the issue, democrat NJ Governor Phil Murphy agreed with the democratic-controlled legislature on a bill that will lead to a state minimum wage of $15 per hour as soon as 2024. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, who has not always seen eye to eye with Murphy, finally brokered the…
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