The Dunkin’ shop on Bragg Boulevard in Fayetteville, N.C. is a microcosm of the impact COVID-19 has had on the chain restaurant business. The newly remodeled next-generation shop is near a cluster of quick serve and fast casual restaurants like Krispy Kreme, McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Dominos, along with local barbeque, Chinese and Mexican take-out…
Read More »Aside from the loan and other financial components contained in the pending federal CARES Act, a number of states and cities are also looking to create and fund business loan programs to help get the economy back on track. Toward that end, 10 days ago the Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan program was launched…
Read More »North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper last week vetoed legislation that would have cut the tax rate on franchises in North Carolina. Protesting that the bill “prioritizes corporate tax cuts over investments in education . . .”, Governor Cooper vetoed S.B.578 which cut business franchise taxes at the same time that he signed a different tax…
Read More »The surprise is not that the minimum wage for state workers in North Carolina is increasing to $15 per hour, rather that the Republican legislature overrode a Democratic gubernatorial veto to make it happen. The generally-reliable red state of North Carolina seemed to flip roles recently when democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoed an Omnibus Spending…
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These are the vacation spots that symbolize an idyllic summer: Cape Cod to Mackinac Island; Ogunquit, Maine to Hilton Head. They’re as American as apple pie. But increasingly, these hot spots have relied on foreign workers to do jobs that would otherwise go unfilled. With an unemployment rate hovering around 4 percent and a scarce…
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For 16 years, George Ross worked in Times Square for Morgan Stanley as an Institutional Equity Trader. Day in and day out he traded technology stocks worldwide to institutions and hedge funds. “I was tied to 6 screens from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day,” Ross says. But it was his job, and he…
Read More »Whether the NLRB remains in business or not, the plethora of traps that unwitting small businessmen and women can find themselves caught in shows no signs of shrinking. Here are a couple of issues to ponder. Under recent court rulings in both Connecticut and Massachusetts, employers may be sued for not making a reasonable accommodation…
Read More »An unlikely result is still in play in the state of Maine, as the legislature there continues to entertain a proposal to make Maine the 29th state in the union with a right-to-work law on its books. Longshot or not, right to work legislation was the subject of a raucous public hearing before the Labor,…
Read More »Provisions in the ballot questions of two of the aforementioned states also mandate that private employers provide paid leave to employees under certain circumstances. Washington’s Initiative 433 (I-433) provides that beginning in 2018, employees will earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. Proposition 206 in Arizona, which passed by a…
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“Equal access” has meant various things, for various classes of people, throughout the history of the United States. For some, it has meant being able to eat at the same restaurants or drink from the same water fountains. For others, it has meant having the right to vote. And, notwithstanding great strides in this country…
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