Notwithstanding the difficulties small businesses continue to encounter in the current economy, the push to increase minimum wages continues to swirl, but this week we can at least report some good news on the subject. A proposed ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage in Michigan to $15 an hour by 2028 has failed to…
Read More »Proponents of Initiative 82 in the District of Columbia have submitted 34,000 voter signatures – over 8,000 more than required – to place the ballot initiative on the June primary ballot eliminating the tipped wage in the Nation’s Capital and forcing employers to pay the full DC minimum wage beginning in 2027. Currently, the minimum…
Read More »Along a similar line, a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of California has dismissed a lawsuit brought by One Fair Wage (an SEIU-sponsored advocacy group associated with the Restaurant Opportunities Center), ruling that the organization did not have standing to bring the complaint. The suit, filed against Darden Restaurants, alleged that the…
Read More »It seems as though a couple of strong advocacy groups are using that old saying as their present day guiding light! First, let’s consider the Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC), a controversial advocacy group that fancies itself a strong employee advocacy group. The group, which is currently pushing for elimination of the entire tipping system,…
Read More »It’s not only governors around the nation that are issuing edicts, imposing restrictions and otherwise getting their pound of flesh from small businesses, municipalities are doing their best as well. The City Council in Denver this week declined to pause the planned minimum wage increase in the Mile High City to $14.77 per hour effective…
Read More »That seems to be the clear message being sent by a number of restaurant employees to SEIU and the Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC). Bartenders and servers have joined forces to create a website, Our Industry Our Voice, through which they advocate for the preservation of the tipped wage (and the tip credit). The website…
Read More »The Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) were founded in 2001 by immigration attorney Saru Jayaraman along with some restaurant workers who survived the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Ostensibly, they organized to help restaurant workers recover from the terrorist attacks and organize moving forward. They were funded by a number of foundations,…
Read More »Like the successful auctioneer, advocates for increasing the minimum wage across the country just won’t settle on a number until the last of the “bidders” has fallen silent. The Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROCU) is one of the union-funded front groups that have been instrumental in singling out and targeting the restaurant industry for minimum…
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