Should Florida’s cities join the Fight for $15? Florida’s legal statutes--not to mention its courts—prohibit localities from setting a wage floor above the state requirement of $8.25 per hour. But the labor groups behind the Fight for $15 are nothing if not determined, and this month renewed their argument for local wage ordinances in Florida with an unusual poll asking voters for their legal interpretation of this issue. Setting aside the […]

A proposal from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to eliminate New York’s tip credit has worried restaurateurs, who are already reeling from recent wage hikes. Cuomo counsel Alphonso David recently dismissed these concerns by pointing west. “California, as an example, does not have a tipped wage, and the sky didn’t fall,” he said at a Crain’s forum. David might want to take a closer look at the data. For many […]

Late last year, President Trump's Labor Department published a proposed rule that would permit back-of-the-house restaurant staff (e.g. dishwashers or cooks) to participate in a workplace tip pool under certain conditions. Labor groups cried foul, claiming it would allow restaurants to "legally steal" tips. (There's a contradiction in terms!) The truth is far less controversial. Let's go through the claims one-by-one: CLAIM: The Trump Labor Department wants to undo "40 years" of precedent […]

It’s deja vu all over again in Johnson County. County leaders tout a new and misleading report as proof that their recent experiment with a higher minimum wage benefited local businesses. Of course, basic economics holds that buyers generally demand less of a product when the price of the product increases, and higher minimum wages make labor more expensive. But Johnson County leaders ignore this principle, […]

Twenty states raised their minimum wages at the start of 2018, and Utah Rep. Lynn Hemingway, D-Millcreek, has announced plans for a similar push in the Beehive State. However well-intentioned, Hemingway’s simple solution to force employers to pay more isn’t the right one. Hemingway has proposed raising Utah’s minimum wage immediately to $10.25 per hour — a 41 percent increase. The wage mandate would rise further […]

If you can't win the game, change the rules. This ignoble sentiment has become a slogan for the modern labor movement, which has struggled to reverse its steady decline in membership. Rather than taking a hard look at the reasons why employees have abandoned unions, some labor organizers have embraced a new brand: Worker centers. The term sounds innocuous enough, but it's legally significant. Worker centers aren't bound by the same […]