On January 9, 2017, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order aimed at ensuring pay equity. The executive order prohibits the State from asking job applicants about their current or previous compensation history until a conditional offer of employment with compensation has been extended.
Such measures have become increasingly popular in employee-friendly…
Over the past few years, numerous states and municipalities have increased the statutory minimum wage. Further, through Executive Order, President Obama increased the federal minimum wage applicable to federal contractors. Consistent with this trend, the governors of both California and New York have now reached new legislative deals with their respective legislative branches which provide…
In prior posts, we have summarized the New York State Department of Labor’s most recent rulemaking processes, comprised of two separate wage boards. The first, in 2014, addressed the hospitality industry as a whole, while more recently, in 2015, another highly publicized wage board addressed the subset of that industry deemed “fast food.” Employers should…
In a televised meeting this afternoon, New York’s recently-convened Fast Food Wage Board confirmed industry employers’ fears and announced its unanimous recommendation that the wage for “fast food employees” in “fast food establishments” be increased to $15/hour by December 31, 2018 in New York City and by July 1, 2021 in the rest of New…
Like many states before it, New York today published new proposed regulations to provide “clarification and specification as to the permissible methods of payment [in New York], including [the use of] payroll debit cards.” The proposed regulations require voluntary consent from employees paid pursuant to such a program, and set minimum program requirements for…
Responding to the Governor’s directive, Acting State Labor Commission Mario J. Musolino has empaneled a Wage Board to recommend a minimum wage increase for the fast food industry. Commissioner Musolino issued a determination regarding the inadequacy of the current minimum wage which states, “I am of the opinion that a substantial number of fast…
In an op/ed piece appearing in yesterday’s New York Times, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he would direct the Commissioner of Labor to convene a new Wage Board “to examine the minimum wage in the fast-food industry” in New York state. The Commissioner’s announcement follows on the heels of a separate op/ed suggesting…
Following his investigation of the issue, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman last week proposed the Payroll Card Act, which would require employers:
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Completing its task assigned by former Commissioner of Labor Peter Rivera, the current New York Wage Board has issued its recommended findings to the Commissioner with respect to tip credit issues. Most importantly for hospitality employers – an industry sector which includes many small, low-margin businesses – if approved by the Commissioner, the available…
Whether a function of recent legislation or a rule tying the minimum wage to inflation, the minimum wage will increase in more than a dozen states in the new year, as it did last year. These changes impact workers at or near the minimum wage (including, in many cases, tipped workers), and also…
