Maddy Joseph is a student at Harvard Law School.
The New York City Council passed the country’s first law requiring ride-hailing apps like Uber to offer in-app tipping. New York’s in-app tipping requirement was first proposed to the City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission this spring in a petition by the Independent Driver’s Guild that garnered over 11,000 signatures.
Also this week, Uber’s long-awaited in-app tipping feature, which it announced late last month, went live nationwide.
California’s agriculture industry is turning to automation in an attempt to make up a growing labor shortage. As immigrant farmworkers age, the LA Times reports, they are not being replaced in the workforce. In response, the $47-billion industry has sought to shift from labor-intensive crops to those that can be harvested mechanically.
A new report by the Century Foundation advocates that “it is the time for unions and their allies to return to the rights-based rhetoric and constitutional legal strategies that preceded the passage of the National Labor Relations Act and the development of our current labor law regime.” The report outlines ten rights that should make up labor’s Bill of Rights.
The Upshot has an analysis of the two recent studies on Seattle’s minimum wage. The analysis suggests that the job losses seen in the University of Washington study, which it attributed to the minimum wage increase, might instead “reflect the limitations of studying a single experiment . . . . [S]ome sort of control group is needed.” See some of our previous coverage of the studies here.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
March 2
Block lays off over 4,000 workers; H-1B fee data is revealed.
March 1
The NLRB officially rescinds the Biden-era standard for determining joint-employer status; the DOL proposes a rule that would rescind the Biden-era standard for determining independent contractor status; and Walmart pays $100 million for deceiving delivery drivers regarding wages and tips.
February 27
The Ninth Circuit allows Trump to dismantle certain government unions based on national security concerns; and the DOL set to focus enforcement on firms with “outsized market power.”
February 26
Workplace AI regulations proposed in Michigan; en banc D.C. Circuit hears oral argument in CFPB case; white police officers sue Philadelphia over DEI policy.
February 25
OSHA workplace inspections significantly drop in 2025; the Court denies a petition for certiorari to review a Minnesota law banning mandatory anti-union meetings at work; and the Court declines two petitions to determine whether Air Force service members should receive backpay as a result of religious challenges to the now-revoked COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
February 24
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB uses the Obama-era Browning-Ferris standard, a fired National Park ranger sues the Department of Interior and the National Park Service, the NLRB closes out Amazon’s labor dispute on Staten Island, and OIRA signals changes to the Biden-era independent contractor rule. The NLRB ruled that Browning-Ferris Industries jointly employed […]