Adi Kamdar is a student at Harvard Law School.
USA Today has a survey of what will happen to worker pay and benefits in 2017. The short version: States may continue to raise minimum wages, and there’s a small chance the federal minimum wage will rise to $10 an hour. Regarding overtime pay, a federal judge’s potential overturning of the Obama Administration’s mandate may have a dampened effect: “Many businesses already have increased managers’ salaries to the $47,476 threshold to avoid paying overtime or converted salaried staffers to hourly employees so their hours can be tracked for overtime.” The article goes on to predict the future of the joint employer rule, paid family and sick leave, and subsidized child care.
CNBC explores this “staying power” of the overtime rule in some more detail. Despite the lawsuit, the article notes, the rule’s effects were already underway. Compensation information and research company PayScale analyzed over 500 jobs that offered salaries between the new and old thresholds and “found that the number making in between those two numbers dropped sharply over the past two quarters.” Furthermore, 40 percent of the corporate clients of Salary.com, a compensation and software analytics firm, had made raises over the threshold or had reclassified workers.
For those of you into “very wonkish” economics, Paul Krugman at the New York Times has an analysis of trade deficits’ effects on manufacturing jobs. For those of us who are not, his bottom line: “yes, trade deficits reduce manufacturing production and jobs. They played a significant although far from dominant role in manufacturing job losses after 2000.”
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
August 11
Rideshare drivers nearing union certification in California; UFCW campaigns against electronic shelf labels; Teamsters support NYC delivery driver bill.
August 10
Employee sues for a fossil-fuel-free 401(k) plan as a religious accommodation; DHS submits a proposed rule eliminating 60-day grace period for H-1B workers; Eighth Circuit dismisses constitutional challenge to the FMSHRC.
August 7
Starbucks beats claims it denied shifts to union workers; Center for State Labor Innovation aims to address labor law shortcomings.
August 6
Taylor Farms faces scrutiny over labor practices; Bipartisan labor bill gains momentum.
August 5
Clash over potential change to Canada’s labor code; Harvard’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy releases model sectoral bargaining laws; NJ sues Amazon for antitrust violations.
August 4
WestJet reaches a deal to end a flight attendant strike; the NLRB rules Whole Foods legally banned Black Lives Matter display; a commentary argues college athletes should have the right to collectively bargain.