Earlier this week, the Michigan Court of Appeals heard oral arguments over a Court of Claims decision rendered earlier this year that voided a legislative amendment to a 2018 ballot measure and reinstated the ballot measure. The ballot question mandated a $12 per hour minimum wage and phases out the current tip credit, so the…
Read More »Speaking of California, it’s do or die this weekend for Save Local Restaurants, a coalition consisting of the International Franchise Association (IFA) along with the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and the U.S Chamber of Commerce. They have spearheaded the effort to overturn the California FAST Act and by Sunday, December 4, the coalition must have…
Read More »With only a few weeks remaining before the critical midterm election on November 8, we again want to highlight some of the ballot questions that will be decided around the country, with this week’s focus on labor issues in general, and minimum wage hikes in particular. A ballot initiative in Nebraska would raise the state…
Read More »With just over one month remaining until the critical November mid-term elections, there are a number of ballot initiatives going before voters in different locales that warrant watching. Restaurant workers along with the city’s Mayor have again come out strongly against an initiative in Portland Maine. Known as Question D, the initiative would raise the…
Read More »Speaking of unionizing efforts, organized labor in the state of Illinois is aggressively pushing to create a state constitutional “right to collective bargaining” in Illinois for all employees. In fact, unions have donated $5 million thus far in support of Amendment 1, an initiative petition on the November 8 ballot that proposes to add a…
Read More »Minimum wage increase advocates continue to push any buttons they can to try and push up minimum wages further and further away from value, but now and again, it just doesn’t work out for them. An effort in California (of all places) to raise the current $15/hour statewide minimum to $18 per hour appears to…
Read More »The Massachusetts Supreme Court this week cleared the so-called Fair Share Act to appear on the Massachusetts November ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment seeks to impose an additional 4% surcharge on Massachusetts taxpayers with income in excess of $1 million in any calendar year. Currently, the Massachusetts Constitution prohibits any kind of graduated income tax,…
Read More »Speaking of Maine, the state’s biggest city, Portland is facing a ballot question in November that could establish a local minimum wage of $18 per hour and at the same time eliminate the tip credit for workers within Portland. The state chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has filed the requisite paperwork to phase…
Read More »Potentially significant changes are on tap for the tip credit rules in a number of jurisdictions around the country. Pennsylvania has already adopted a significant change that will quadruple the tip income requirement necessary for an employer to use the tip credit. Currently, the Pennsylvania minimum wage law requires employers paying the tipped minimum ($2.83…
Read More »For some however, whatever the minimum wage, it is never going to be enough. As a case in point, a ballot initiative is currently pending in California that would mandate the minimum wage at businesses with 26 or more employees rise to $18 per hour in 2025 and for businesses with 25 or fewer employees,…
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