New Jersey is one example, but the ongoing drumbeat to continually hike the minimum wage at state and local levels continues. The city council in St. Paul Minnesota released an initial draft of a $15/hr minimum wage ordinance they plan to consider before year-end. The proposal mandates that large businesses with 100 workers or more…
Read More »Somehow it seems appropriate that rock band The Eagles released that hit song in 1976, early in the first administration of California Governor Jerry Brown (1975 – 1983). Well, it must be déjà vu all over again as the same Governor Brown signed a couple of different bills recently that can significantly impact small businesses…
Read More »For the past couple of months, the hope existed that litigation pending in a Los Angeles Superior Court would ultimately be dismissed after the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) recommended coffee retailers be exempted from California Proposition 65 requirements to include a cancer warning on coffee. Public comments included an endorsement of…
Read More »Out in the “other Washington” (that would be the state), voters in November will be asked to prohibit local communities from imposing additional taxes on groceries including soda or other sugary beverages. If passed, Initiative 1634 would not affect Seattle’s tax on soda, syrups and sugary beverages of 1.75 cents per ounce, but it will…
Read More »California Governor Jerry Brown this week signed into law legislation making California the first state in the nation mandating gender quotas on private businesses. Senate bill 826, which Brown signed last Sunday, prescribes that all publicly held companies with their principal executive offices within the state of California (rather than where they may have been…
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When it comes to customer loyalty, Dunkin’ may just have an edge on its closest rival Cultivating satisfied, loyal customers has always been an important factor to the success of any business, but since social media has enabled rapid-fire opinion sharing, happy customers are more important today than ever. According to a 2016 Forrester Research…
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Many franchisors utilize so-called “no-poach” clauses in their franchise agreements, and such clauses may be structured in a way that limits a franchisee’s ability to hire employees of other, same-brand franchisees and/or employees of the franchisor. Recently, a group of state attorneys general and prominent legislators began pressing franchisors to cease use of so-called “no-poach”…
Read More »Taking restrictions to a whole new level, California Governor Jerry Brown last week signed 2 bills into law that place additional restrictions on the restaurant industry in a couple of different areas. The first restricts the distribution of plastic straws while the second targets sugary drinks by mandating that only milk or sparkling, still or…
Read More »California, which as mentioned above, already requires sexual harassment training for private employees, has also acted on a host of issues which will ultimately have an impact on small businesses throughout the Golden State. AB 3080, which was presented to Governor Jerry Brown for his signature on August 27, makes it illegal for employers to…
Read More »We advised our readers a few months ago of a decision by a Los Angeles Superior Court that coffee retailers in California were violating state law by not posting warnings for their customers of the presence in coffee of acrylamide, a chemical that is produced by roasting coffee beans and has been linked to cancer.…
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