Alexa Kissinger is a student at Harvard Law School.
Employers will now have more time to comply with two separate EEOC regulations. The agency announced employers will have three extra months before it begins enforcing the anti-retaliation provisions of its injury and illness reporting rule, and six extra months to submit 2017 employee data reports under its revised EEO-1 reporting rule. The National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups are currently suing OSHA over the anti-retaliation provisions of the injury and illness reporting rule, alleging they limit incident-based safety incentive programs and post-accident drug testing. The revised reporting rule, which President Obama announced on the seventh anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, updates the existing requirement that businesses submit annual employee demographic data to require businesses with 100 or more employees to report pay data by gender, race and ethnicity.
The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits held steady last week at an historically low level. The Labor Department announced that initial claims for unemployment benefits last week were unchanged from the prior week at 254,000. According to The Wall Street Journal, these numbers may be the latest sign the labor market may be stabilizing.
The Obama Administration announced that, for the first time, national health spending will average more than $10,000 a person this year. According to The New York Times, the administration reported that by 2025, health care will represent 20 percent of the total economy, up from 17.8 percent last year. By 2025, one of every five Americans will be on Medicare, and the program will spend an average of nearly $18,000 a year for each beneficiary. Experts attributed the spending growth to improvements in economic conditions that are projected over the next decade, somewhat higher incomes, and the use of high-cost specialty drugs and faster growth in drug prices. The expansion of coverage under the Affordable Care Act likely contributed to higher spending on hospital and doctors’ services, “with fewer people reporting that they had skipped needed medical care because of cost concerns,” the Administration’s report said.
Uber announced it will be suspending operations in Hungary due to new regulations in the country. As reported in FORTUNE, even though The European Commission recently pleaded with EU countries to work with sharing economy platforms such as Uber and AirBnB, the Hungarian parliament passed new legislation requiring authorities to block the apps of passenger transport companies that do not use a traditional dispatch service. In other Uber news, a report by Morgan Stanley found that yellow cabs still outperform Uber and other ride-sharing apps in New York. According to the report as shared by Recode, there were 11.1 million taxi trips in April, 4.7 million Uber trips, 750,000 Lyft trips, and 450,000 Via trips. However, the 11.1 million taxi rides represent a 9% drop from a year earlier, while Uber’s percentage rose 121%. Taxi drivers also gave twice as many rides per week as Uber drivers (91 vs. 44 respectively), according to the research.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
October 19
FDA reverses course on policy prohibiting off-duty union activity; FAA and NATCA reach deal to secure pay increase for air traffic controllers.
October 18
Federal judge again halts cancellation of the Bureau of Prisons’ CBA; tabletop gaming workers face roadblocks in union recognition.
October 16
Department of Labor reduces wage-and-hour enforcement at unionized workplaces; Fain's victory poses question of federal monitor's extension.
October 15
New reporting examines the rollback of child labor protections; California tries to block a strike; NLRB charges Wisconsin mental health provider with firing workers during union drive.
October 14
Eleventh Circuit overturns ERISA exhaustion rule; DHS finalizes removal of automatic renewal for work permits; AFGE challenges SSA over flexible scheduling policy.
October 13
Chicago hotel workers remain on strike; a coalition of Democratic states sues the Labor Department over canceled unemployment insurance grants; the Federal Labor Relations Authority establishes a new mediation framework for federal worker disputes.