Notwithstanding the economic realities of the ongoing labor shortage and the BLS data showing wages exceeding $15 per hour in supermarkets and restaurants across the country, advocates continue to push. In Nebraska, a host of community organizations announced the launch of Raise the Wage Nebraska, a 2022 ballot initiative campaign that would increase the current…
Read More »The state of Delaware became the latest to adopt a statewide minimum wage of $15 per hour when Governor John Carney signed the minimum wage increase into law this week. Under the law’s provisions, the Delaware minimum (currently $9.25) will rise $1.25 on January 1 of each of the next three years and jump to…
Read More »One could rightly conclude that the middle of a severe economic downturn resulting from a widespread global pandemic would not be a good time to consider increasing a state or local community’s minimum wage. But that wisdom apparently doesn’t hold with some in Portland Maine. Aside from the presidential decision on November 3, voters in…
Read More »Speaking of efforts to mandate increases in state minimum wages, the latest polling on the Florida minimum wage ballot initiative shows the effort is not as sure a winner as was originally projected. Amendment 2 on the November ballot, which would increase the state current minimum wage of $8.56 per hour to $10 per hour…
Read More »A citizen-driven initiative petition to cut both the corporate and individual income tax rates in the state of Colorado has cleared the requisite hurdles and qualified for the November ballot. Backers of Initiative 306, “State Income Tax Rate Reduction”, submitted a total of 198,538 signatures to the office of the Colorado Secretary of State this…
Read More »With minimum wage increases staying in the forefront in a number of jurisdictions across the country, the state of Florida is likewise moving closer to putting the question of raising the state minimum wage on the November 2020 ballot. Florida for a Fair Wage, the primary PAC behind the measure, has thus far submitted just…
Read More »After supporting minimum wage increases just about anywhere and everywhere that they are proposed, organized labor is now looking at the resulting turn toward automation with an eye on restricting or limiting such business options. In Oregon, where the current minimum wage for most counties is $11.25 an hour ($11 in non-urban counties and $12.50…
Read More »Speaking of minimum wage increase proposals, advocates in two states are aiming to put a minimum wage increase question on the ballot for voters to decide. First, in Florida, attorney John Morgan, who has been spearheading an effort to increase the state minimum wage (currently $8.46/hour), claimed this week that he had collected over a…
Read More »The Massachusetts legislature, meeting in Constitutional Convention (ConCon) this week gave procedural approval to placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2022. The proposal would amend the state constitution by allowing for classes of taxpayers to be taxed at different levels – more specifically, imposing an additional 4% surcharge on incomes exceeding $1 million.…
Read More »A compromise seems to have been brokered by Governor Janet Mills in the state of Maine over mandating paid leave benefits for private employees. The legislature’s Labor Committee this week approved compromise legislation that would apply to businesses with more than 10 employees who work for a business more than three months in a year.…
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