The Supreme Court on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, declined to take up a decision addressing the president’s authority under the Procurement Act to issue a minimum wage mandate for employees working on federal government contracts. The denial of the petition for certiorari keeps a circuit split intact, and leaves federal contractors to navigate the wage
Minimum Wage
Proposed Rule Would End Subminimum Wage for Employees with Disabilities
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a proposed rule to end the practice of paying subminimum wages to certain workers with disabilities.
The proposed rule, announced December 3, 2024, marks the first rulemaking related to the subminimum wage in 35 years, although the regulation had been included in the DOL’s long-term regulatory agenda…
Michigan Supreme Court to Hear State’s Minimum Wage and Paid Sick Leave Laws Battle
In 2018, the Michigan legislature adopted, and then within the same legislative session amended, two voter-approved ballot initiatives, one to significantly raised Michigan’s minimum wage and the other to expand employer obligations to provide paid sick leave. In 2022, the Michigan Court of Claims held that the legislature’s actions violated the Michigan Constitution and ordered…
First D.C. Tip Credit Elimination Act Measures Soon to Become Effective
Beginning May 1, 2023, the hourly minimum wage for tipped employees in the District of Columbia will increase from $5.35 to $6.00. This increase is the first step in the eventual elimination of the tip credit altogether in the District.
The next phase will occur on July 1, 2023, when the base hourly minimum wage…
2022 State Elections Result in Several Minimum Wage Changes
During the November 2022 elections, voters in several locations across the country approved minimum wage increases. Most notably:
- District of Columbia voters passed the Tip Credit Elimination Act, which, by 2027, will result in the elimination of the tip credit in the District and require employers to pay tipped employees the full minimum wage.
- Voters
Connecticut’s Minimum Wage Increasing to $14 on July 1
As previously reported in this blog, Connecticut’s minimum wage will increase $1.00, to $14.00 per hour, beginning tomorrow, July 1. It is the penultimate step of a 2019 law enacting a series of tiered minimum wage increases that will reach the law’s goal of $15.00 per hour in June 2023.
Beginning in January 2024, the…
Preliminary Motion Seeking to Invalidate DOL’s Dual Jobs Final Rule Fails
Recently we reported on the efforts of the Restaurant Law Center (RLC), an independent public policy organization affiliated with the National Restaurant Association, to invalidate the Dual Jobs Final Rule published by the Department of Labor (DOL). To that end, in early February the RLC filed a motion for preliminary injunction in federal court in…
Lawsuits Filed Challenging the DOL Dual Jobs Final Rule, $15 Federal Contractor Minimum Wage
Several recent lawsuits have been filed in federal court, one challenging the Dual Jobs Final Rule published by the Department of Labor (DOL) that became effective in late December 2021, and two others filed this week by several state attorneys general challenging President Biden’s Executive Order requiring most federal contractors to pay a minimum wage…
DOL Proposes Regulations Implementing $15 Per Hour Federal Contractor Minimum Wage Executive Order
On April 27, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14026, raising to $15 per hour — with increases to be published annually — the minimum wage certain federal contractors must pay workers performing work “on or in connection with” a covered Federal contract or subcontract. The types of contracts impacted include those covered by the…
The Proposed Federal Covid-19 Relief Bill Includes a $15 Minimum Wage Hike and Elimination of the Tip Credit. Will Those Provisions Survive?
Making good on President Biden’s campaign promise, the House of Representatives has included in its $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill, known as the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021,” revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025. The current federal minimum wage…