| | | | |  | | By Nick Niedzwiadek | Presented by WorkRise | | | | MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The federal fiscal year ends this week, which means the calendar will be flipping before you know it. January often marks the start date for many policy changes, including minimum wage rate increases. That will be an additional cost that employers will have to factor into their businesses. Though the federal rate will remain at $7.25 — as it has stood since 2009, despite attempts by Democrats to raise the hourly pay floor beyond double digits — a majority of states have set their own higher amounts, according to the Labor Department. Come January, states ranging from Missouri to Delaware will be phasing in statutory increases to their minimum wages, per the National Conference of State Legislatures. Missouri is among those that will top out at $12, while others are on the path to $15 an hour. A more recent phenomena is the trend of states tethering their minimum wage laws to inflation, unlike the federal rate. That's particularly noteworthy given the price pressures of late. Eleven states (plus D.C.) will be bumping up their minimum wages due at least partially due to inflation. For example Colorado this month announced its statewide rate will surge nearly 8.7 percent from $12.56 to $13.65. Several of these states have yet to finalize their rates for 2023, but they will start trickling in over the coming weeks. While the start of a new year is a natural date for minimum wage changes to kick in, it by no means is the only time. At the end of the week Florida will see its minimum go from $10 to $11 dollars per hour, with another $1 increase coming Sept. 30, 2023. Hawaii will raise its minimum wage Oct. 1 to $12, and Michigan is scheduled to follow suit in mid-February after being bogged down by legal issues . Additionally Nebraska voters are considering a ballot initiative that would step up the state's minimum wage to $15 by 2026 that if passed would boost its $9 minimum wage by $1.50, starting Jan. 1. GOOD MORNING. It's Monday, Sept. 26. Welcome back to Weekly Shift, your go-to tipsheet on employment and immigration news. Send feedback, tips, exclusives to emueller@politico.com and nniedzwiadek@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @eleanor_mueller and @nickniedz.
| | | | A message from WorkRise: How can we improve job quality and economic mobility for workers? Join WorkRise and its partners for the virtual conference Charting a Resilient Future for US Workers: Solutions to Navigate an Uncertain Economy taking place Oct 18 - 20, 2022. Hear from advocates, employers, policymakers, and researchers on ways to support workers navigate the challenges and promises of today's uncertain economy. Register for free today! | | | Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories.
| | | HELMING HELP: The impending retirement of Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) has opened up the top GOP slot on the HELP committee, though it is not entirely clear who will step in. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) is the ranking member of HELP's subcommittee on employment and workplace safety and often fills in for Burr during hearings when he is not around. But Braun is entertaining a run for governor back in the Hoosier State, as our congressional team reported this past week. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is also a contender but so far he is keeping his options open. He told POLITICO's Prescription Pulse he has yet to decide on whether to jockey for HELP or the leading role on the Homeland Security Committee. "In the Senate, on the Republican side, typically they've been awarded based on seniority, and I'll be the most senior person on homeland security and on health," Paul said. For Burr's part, he's already transitioning to a different type of government focus. Earlier this month he weighed in on a pizza shop brouhaha in the Outer Banks where he owns a vacation home.
| | | | HAPPENING 9/29 - POLITICO'S AI & TECH SUMMIT : Technology is constantly evolving and so are the politics and policies shaping and regulating it. Join POLITICO for the 2022 AI & Tech summit to get an insider look at the pressing policy and political issues shaping tech, and how Washington interacts with the tech sector. The summit will bring together lawmakers, federal regulators, tech executives, tech policy experts and consumer advocates to dig into the intersection of tech, politics, regulation and innovation, and identify opportunities, risks and challenges ahead. REGISTER FOR THE SUMMIT HERE. | | | | | | | | POTENTIAL CHANGES AT THE EEOC: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Charlotte Burrows signaled a willingness to reverse a change made under Republican appointees subjecting more litigation requests to formal approval votes. "It's not efficient," Burrows told reporters Thursday. "It does take a while, a lot longer." In recent decades the EEOC had delegated part of its litigation decision-making to agency attorneys, though controversial or high-profile cases would still go before the commission's political appointees. But that changed during the Trump years as Republicans argued that centralizing authorization and requiring votes was better for consistency across the EEOC and better adheres to the agency's statutory design, while Democrats contend that it slows down cases and diminishes the professional judgment of career staff. "It does take a while for people to present a case to someone who's never heard about it," Burrows said. "So that binds a lot of energy with respect to the field." More EEOC news: "EEOC commission files lawsuit against Sinclair over firing of person with schizoaffective disorder," from CBS News. MARTY IN THE LIMELIGHT: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh has been basking in a wave of positive press attention for being the face of the Biden administration's effort to (tentatively) avert a debilitating freight rail work stoppage. Perhaps nowhere is that more true than some of the op-ed pages of the former Boston mayor's local papers. A Boston Globe columnist rhapsodized Walsh's appeal to working-class Americans otherwise alienated by today's Democratic Party under the title "Marty Walsh in 2024?" And the Dorchester Reporter scored an interview with the labor secretary that included Walsh reminiscing about the former leader of a local civic association in an editorial that called the Cabinet post "the perfect job" for the one-time union chief.
| | | YOU PROBABLY SLACKED OFF FRIDAYS ANYWAY: Companies participating in England's four-day workweek experiment are not reporting drop-offs in productivity, The New York Times reports. "Nearly halfway into the six-month trial , in which employees at 73 companies get a paid day off weekly, 35 of the 41 companies that responded to a survey said they were 'likely' or 'extremely likely' to consider continuing the four-day workweek beyond the end of the trial in late November. All but two of the 41 companies said productivity was either the same or had improved. Remarkably, six companies said productivity had significantly improved."
| | | | A message from WorkRise:   | | | | | | BACK ON THE HILL: Today could mark the first time that a congressional staff votes to unionize. Rep. Andy Levin's staff cast ballots at the end of last week, the results of which are set to be counted Monday, The Hill reports. "The vote comes just over four months after the House voted in May to allow congressional workers to unionize. Levin introduced the resolution that eventually passed entirely along party lines." One note: Levin lost a member-on-member primary to Rep. Haley Stevens , so even a victory will leave the path forward a bit unsettled given that he will be out of office come January. More union news: "Inside the Drive: The Minor Leaguers Who Sprung a Union on MLB," from Sports Illustrated.
| | | TESLA SUES CALIF. AGENCY: Tesla filed a countersuit Thursday against the California Civil Rights Department after it alleged widespread race discrimination at the company's Fremont plant, Reuters reports. The electric carmaker alleged the agency "adopted 'underground regulations' allowing it to file the lawsuit without first notifying Tesla of the claims or giving the company a chance to settle." "Tesla is seeking an order barring the CRD from following its allegedly unlawful procedures in the investigation of any employer and requiring the agency to adopt new regulations through a formal rulemaking process." More California news: "Caste-Bias Case Misrepresents Hinduism, Suit Says," from Bloomberg Law.
| | | | THIS WEEK - MILKEN INSTITUTE ASIA SUMMIT : Go inside the 9th annual Milken Institute Asia Summit, taking place from September 28-30, with a special edition of POLITICO's Global Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive coverage and insights from this important gathering. Stay up to speed with daily updates from the summit, which brings together more than 1,200 of the world's most influential leaders from business, government, finance, technology, and academia. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | CEILING ON GREEN CARDS: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has sped up its processing of employment-based green cards but is fast-approaching its limit sans congressional action, Roll Call reports. "Congress came close two years ago to passing legislation that would eliminate the per-country caps, which prevent any one country from eating up more than 7 percent of total employment-based green cards. …Both chambers passed their own versions of the bill with bipartisan support, but the session ended before the two could reconcile their differences and send the legislation to then-President Donald Trump's desk." More immigration news: "DeSantis is not stopping his migrant charters. And Biden world can't do a thing about it," from POLITICO.
| | | | A message from WorkRise: WorkRise — a research-to-action network on jobs, workers, and mobility at the Urban Institute — and its partners are hosting a free virtual conference from Oct 18 - 20, 2022. This 3-day conference will explore innovative policies and practices to improve job quality, economic mobility, and creative, cross-sector solutions that turn risk into resilience so that workers, businesses, and communities can thrive. This conference is relevant to employers and business leaders, journalists, talent professionals, service and training providers, worker advocates, program administrators, policymakers, and all changemakers working to support economic mobility in the labor force. We invite attendees to apply lessons from the event to their work in advancing workers' economic mobility through policy, practice, and partnerships. Register for free today! | | | | | | — "Amazon Routinely Hired Dangerous Trucking Companies, With Deadly Consequences," from The Wall Street Journal. — "U.S. labor market resilient as recession signals grow stronger," from Reuters. — " Millennials Want to Retire at 50. How to Afford It Is Another Matter," from The New York Times. — "Remote workers are wasting their time proving they're actually working," from Vox. — "Swiss voters OK plan to raise retirement age for women to 65," from The Associated Press. — "France Likely to Raise Pension Eligibility Age, Minister Says" from Bloomberg. THAT'S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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