President-elect Biden, who will be inaugurated as the nation’s 45th President on Wednesday, last night outlined another new COVID relief package which he will ask Congress to approve within hours of taking his oath of office. The proposal he is submitting will include $2000 stimulus checks for qualified Americans as well as automatic extensions of…
Well, it seems the unlikely has happened and Georgia voters turned the formerly-red state solid blue this week and with it, flipped the US Senate to democratic control. With the White House, US House of Representatives and now the US Senate all being in democratic control, what can we expect to see coming out of…
As the New Year arrived one week ago, so too did higher minimum wages in over three dozen state and local jurisdictions. The following 20 states along with 32 cities and counties raised their minimum wage on January 1: Arizona: $12.15; Alaska: $10.34; Arkansas: $11; California: $14 for large employers, $13 for small employers; Colorado:…
Presidents and presidential candidates come and go, with this year’s election no different than many others in our country’s history in that regard. But many of the issues Dunkin’ franchise owners care about are not solely or even principally determined in Washington, D.C. Rather, state lawmakers and their counterparts on the local level – city…
While the results of the presidential will not be known, let alone certified for quite some time, such delays are not the case in a host of ballot question issues from around the country. Perhaps having the greatest immediate impact on businesses, Amendment 2 was passed by Florida voters with a 61% plurality (the constitutional…
Elsewhere over the Labor Day weekend, activist groups – including SEIU and other labor unions – held rallies and protests in support of Amendment 2 on the November ballot. Amendment 2 is a constitutional amendment proposed – and funded – by Orlando attorney John Morgan to increase the state minimum wage to $15 per hour…
As states around the country begin or advance the re-opening of their economies, one could easily overlook the mandated increases in state and local minimum wages that are already on the books. To avoid that problem, we advise that you check in with your employment professionals or legal counsel on changes that may be happening…
In the face of the unprecedented coronavirus crisis and the havoc that the global pandemic is wreaking on the American economy, California business groups have called on Governor Gavin Newsom to delay the next installment in the gradual raising of the California minimum wage. When the $15/hour wage law passed in 2016, Governor Jerry Brown…
You win some, you lose some. That’s the short version of the outlook for quick-service franchise owners as we head towards the end of the first quarter of 2020. On the plus side, the Trump Administration has finally nixed the controversial “joint-employer” rule that has roiled the quick-service sector for more than a half a…
For the second straight year, the Rhode Island state senate has passed a new increase in the state minimum wage that could take effect on October 1, 2020 – just over one month before Election Day. The proposal, which increases the current state minimum of $10.50 per hour to $11.50 per hour, must still pass…