In November, with only days to go before a new federal overtime rule was set to kick in — adding an estimated 4 million American works to the list of those eligible to receive overtime pay — a federal court granted a nationwide injunction blocking the new rule from being enforced. Now Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is appealing that injunction, even though his successor under the incoming Trump administration will almost certainly drop that appeal once in office. [More]
wage wars
Court: NCAA Athletes Are Not Employees, Not Entitled To Minimum Wage
By 12.7.16
Even though collegiate athletes brings in untold fortunes for schools, TV networks, merchandise makers, ticket vendors, and the hospitality and travel industries, they are not — according to a federal appeals court — employees of their schools and are therefore not entitled to be paid anything. [More]
Feds Appeal Order That Halted Expansion Of Overtime Pay To Millions
By 12.1.16
This morning, around 4 million Americans would have gone to work, eligible to collect overtime pay that they hadn’t previously been entitled to receive. However, last week a federal court judge halted the new rule that would have expanded this overtime coverage. Even with a new administration coming into the White House in about seven weeks, the Justice Department has announced its intention to appeal this ruling. [More]
Federal Court Halts New Rule That Would Have Provided Overtime Pay For Millions
By 11.23.16
Last May, the U.S. Department of Labor finalized a new rule that would have greatly expanded the number of American workers eligible to collect overtime. That rule was slated to go into effect on Dec. 1, but last night a federal judge in Texas put a temporary halt on the updated rule. [More]
One State & One City Voted To Eventually Do Away With Sub-Minimum Wages For Tipped Workers
By 11.9.16
If you’ve never worked in the foodservice or hospitality industry, you may not know that employees who rely on tips often earn base pay that is significantly less than minimum wage (the federal minimum is currently $2.13/hour). Tips can certainly add up to much more than the minimum wage, but they can also be cyclical and unpredictable, which is problematic for people living paycheck to paycheck. Yesterday, voters in one state and one city decided it was time to phase in wage increases that will eventually get tipped workers earning base pay that is at least the minimum. [More]
Washington D.C. To Raise Minimum Wage To $15/Hour By 2020
By 6.8.16
While companies like Target, Walmart, and IKEA have been announcing increases to their employee minimum wage one by one, some cities — and states — have take it upon themselves to approve across the board wage increases for residents. Joining the list that already includes Seattle, Los Angeles, and the state of California, the Washington, D.C. council approved a measure that would raise the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2020. [More]
New York Sues Domino’s Pizza HQ, Alleges Underpayment Of Workers
By 5.24.16
A new lawsuit filed by New York state prosecutors accuses Domino’s Pizza and three Domino’s franchisees of underpaying workers at 10 stores by at least $565,000. Meanwhile, Domino’s HQ contends it should not be a defendant because franchisees are responsible for handling issues of pay. [More]
143 NY Nail Salons Ordered To Pay Employees $2M In Back Wages
By 5.9.16
The New York task force created last year by the state to combat nail salon labor abuses is having an effect on the industry, with the group announcing today that it’s ordered a slew of nail salons to pay millions in back wages to employees. [More]
Franchisees’ Challenge To Seattle’s $15/Hour Minimum Wage Falls Short
By 5.2.16
When Seattle city leadership voted in 2014 to approve a plan to raise minimum wage to $15/hour over the course of several years, franchisees in the city said the rules were unfair and vowed to challenge the higher wages in court. Today that challenge came to a quiet end when the U.S. Supreme Court elected to not hear the matter. [More]
Report: Target Raises Lowest Wage To $10 To Stay Competitive
By 4.18.16
In the retail business, good employees are apparently becoming harder to find. Joining its main competitor, Walmart, Target will reportedly raise its lowest wage to $10, starting new employees at that rate or higher, and raising the pay of current employees who earn less than $10 to that level. [More]
World Cup Champ Women’s Soccer Players Accuse U.S. Soccer Federation Of Wage Discrimination
By 3.31.16
While the women on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team have outshone the men’s team — winning three World Cup championships since 1991 and gold medals in all but one of the Summer Olympics since 1994 — they remain significantly underpaid than their underperforming male counterparts. Today, five members of that championship team filed an action with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that the U.S. Soccer Federation is unfairly discriminating against female players. [More]
Costco Raising Entry-Level Employee Minimum Wage For The First Time In Nearly A Decade
By 3.4.16
In a bid to attract more quality workers, Costco says it will raise the minimum wage for entry-level workers for the first time in nine years. [More]
Walmart To Raise All Employees’ Wages Next Month
By 1.20.16
Nearly a year after Walmart announced it would give 40% of its employees – mostly minimum wage workers – a pay increase, the nation’s largest retailer plans to give all employees, about 1.2 million of them, an earnings boost. [More]
Workers At Seven U.S. Airports Set To Strike Wednesday Night
By 11.18.15
Travelers at seven of the country’s busiest airports may experience delays or other issues tomorrow as thousands of airport workers plan to strike Wednesday night protesting poor working conditions and threats related to their efforts to unionize. [More]
Walmart Cutting Workers’ Hours As It Increases Wages
By 8.31.15
In recent months, Walmart increased pay for entry-level employees so that all workers were making at least $9/hour. At the same time, the retailer’s earnings have come up short of expectations, leading Walmart to instruct managers to curb spending by cutting hours for some workers. [More]
CEOs Of Chipotle, CVS, Discovery, Walmart Make The Most Compared To Employees’ Wages
By 8.25.15
Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission finalized a long-delayed rule that will require many businesses to publicly disclose the ratio of their top executive’s pay to the earnings of the typical employee. If the data in a newly released report is accurate, then the CEOs of Chipotle, CVS, Walmart, and Discovery Communications are each making more than 1,000 times the average salary of the people they employ. [More]
Chipotle Plans To Hire 4,000 People In Single Day
By 8.24.15
Chipotle has a plan to grow its workforce by 7%, not over the course of a year or even a few months. The burrito chain’s goal is to accomplish this feat — hiring 4,000 new employees — in the course of a single day in September. [More]
Some Walmart Workers Not Thrilled About Pay Hikes (Because They Didn’t Get One)
By 8.6.15
Earlier this year, Walmart pledged to increase its starting wages, affecting about 40% of its workforce, but some employees who’ve been with the company for years and may not be affected by the pay hikes aren’t thrilled. [More]
