Tala Doumani is a student at Harvard Law School.
A federal contractor minimum wage increase to $15 an hour is slated to go into effect Jan. 30. In April 2021, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14026 increasing the minimum pay of federal contractors. The purpose of the Order, in an announcement made by the Labor Department, is to enhance “worker productivity, generate higher-quality work by bolstering employee health, morale, and effort” as well as improve economic security of these workers and their families, many of whom are women and people of color. The Order contains provisions that require the minimum wage in future years to be indexed against inflation. Notably, the Order also eliminated the tipped minimum wage for contract employees and ensures at least $15 an hour for workers with disabilities. The increase will apply to new federal contracts as well as renewals and extensions of existing contracts. Over 320,000 federal contract employees will benefit from the new increase.
Daily News & Commentary
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March 13
Republican Senators urge changes on OSHA heat standard; OpenAI and building trades announce partnership on data center construction; forced labor investigations could lead to new tariffs
March 12
EPA terminates contract with second-largest union; Florida advances bill restricting public sector unions; Trump administration seeks Supreme Court assistance in TPS termination.
March 11
The partial government shutdown results in TSA agents losing their first full paycheck; the Fifth Circuit upholds the certification of a class of former United Airline workers who were placed on unpaid leave for declining to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons during the pandemic; and an academic group files a lawsuit against the State Department over a policy that revokes and denies visas to noncitizens for their work in fact-checking and content moderation.
March 10
Court rules Kari Lake unlawfully led USAGM, voiding mass layoffs; Florida Senate passes bill tightening union recertification rules; Fifth Circuit revives whistleblower suit against Lockheed Martin.
March 9
6th Circuit rejects Cemex, Board may overrule precedents with two members.
March 8
In today’s news and commentary, a weak jobs report, the NIH decides it will no longer recognize a research fellows’ union, and WNBA contract talks continue to stall as season approaches. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that employers cut 92,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.4 percent. A loss […]