Minimum Wage Increases In Store For Many In 2017

01/03/2017 |

Minimum Wage Increases In Store For Many In 2017

12.19.16 Fisher Phillips Legal Alert

While the federal minimum wage has remained steady at $7.25 for the past seven years, many state and local jurisdictions have set their own minimum rates higher than the federal level. And, of course, when a local jurisdiction mandates a rate higher than the federal rate, you must pay your employees the higher rate.

Here is a listing of all the planned increases currently on tap for 2017. If your state or local jurisdiction is not listed, there is presently no increase in store for you in the new year. Obviously, though, these laws may change at any time, and you should consult with your local employment counsel before acting upon the information contained in this summary.

NOTE: These rates are for non-tipped employees. Check with your Fisher Phillips attorney, or with any attorney in the Fisher Phillips Hospitality Practice Group, for information about minimum wage rates for tipped employees.

The Alaska minimum wage will increase from $9.75 to $9.80 on January 1, 2017.

Arizona will see a minimum wage increase from $8.05 to $10.00 on January 1, 2017. Also, the city of Flagstaff will see an increase from $8.05 to $10.00 on January 1, 2017, and an additional increase to $12.00 on July 1, 2017.

The minimum wage for Arkansas will increase from $8.00 to $8.50 on January 1, 2017.

There will be plenty of activity in California. The statewide minimum wage will increase from $10.00 to $10.50 as of January 1, 2017 (although employers with 25 or fewer employees will receive a one-year reprieve and will not face the statewide increase in 2017), but 18 local jurisdictions in the state will also see minimum wage increases this coming year:

Berkeley will see an increase from $12.53 to $13.75 on October 1, 2017.
There will be an increase in the minimum wage in Cupertino from $10.00 to $12.00 on January 1, 2017.
Smaller employers in Emeryville (55 or fewer workers) will see an increase from $13.00 to $14.00 on July 1, 2017, while the increase for larger employers will be announced in 2017 and go into effect on July 1, 2017.
The minimum wage in Los Altos will increase from $10.00 to $12.00 on January 1, 2017.
Los Angeles will see an increase from $10.50 to $12.00 on July 1, 2017.
Those employers in Los Angeles County will also see an increase from $10.50 to $12.00 on July 1, 2017.
Mountain View employers will face a minimum increase from $11.00 to $13.00 on January 1, 2017.
In Oakland, the minimum wage will increase from $12.55 to $12.86 on January 1, 2017.
There will be a minimum wage increase in Palo Alto from $11.00 to $12.00 as of January 1, 2017.
In Pasadena, employers with 25 or fewer employees will face a minimum wage increase to $10.50 as of July 1, 2017, while larger employers will face an increase from $10.50 to $12.00 as of the same date.
Richmond will see an increase in the minimum wage from $11.52 to $12.30 on January 1, 2017.
In San Diego, the minimum wage will increase from $10.50 to $11.50 as of January 1, 2017.
San Francisco’s minimum wage will increase from $13.00 to $14.00 as of July 1, 2017.
The San Jose minimum wage will increase from $10.30 to $10.50 as of January 1, 2017.
There will be a minimum wage increase for employers in San Mateo, with rates increasing from $10.00 to $12.00 on January 1, 2017.
Santa Clara will see a minimum wage increase from $11.00 to $11.10 as of January 1, 2017.
In Santa Monica, the minimum wage will increase from $10.50 to $12.00 on July 1, 2017.
Employers in Sunnyvale will face a minimum wage increase from $11.00 to $13.00 on January 1, 2017.

The Colorado minimum wage will increase from $8.31 to $9.30 on January 1, 2017.

Connecticut will see an increase to the state minimum wage increase from $9.60 to $10.10 as of January 1, 2017.

In the District of Columbia, the minimum wage will increase from $11.50 to $12.50 as of July 1, 2017.

The Florida minimum wage will increase from $8.05 to $8.10 as of January 1, 2017.

The minimum wage in Hawaii will increase from $8.50 to $9.25 on January 1, 2017.

In Illinois, the statewide minimum wage will remain steady in 2017, but employers in Chicago will see an increase from $10.50 to $11.00 on July 1, 2017, and those in Cook County will face an increase from $8.25 to $10.00 on the same date.

While the minimum wage in Iowa is not scheduled to increase in 2017, three local jurisdictions will see increases:

Johnson County employers will face a minimum wage increase from $9.15 to $10.10 on January 1, 2017.
For employers in Polk County, the minimum wage will increase from $7.25 to $8.75 on April 1, 2017.
In Wapello County, the minimum wage will increase from $7.25 to $8.20 on January 1, 2017.

In Maine, the minimum wage will increase from $7.50 to $9.00 as of January 7, 2017. In Portland, the increase to the minimum wage will be from $10.10 to $10.68.

Maryland’s minimum wage will increase from $8.75 to $9.25 on July 1, 2017. Also:

Montgomery County employers will face a minimum wage increase from $10.75 to $11.50 on July 1, 2017.
For employers in Prince George’s County the minimum wage increase will be from $10.75 to $11.50 on October 1, 2017.

In Massachusetts, the minimum wage will increase from $10.00 to $11.00 on January 1, 2017.

The minimum wage in Michigan will increase from $8.50 to $8.90 as of January 1, 2017.

In Missouri, the minimum wage will increase from $7.65 to $7.70 as of January 1, 2017. Further:

The Kansas City minimum wage, which was slated to increase to $9.82 on January 1 2017, is stalled due to pending court challenges. The Missouri Supreme Court is expected to soon rule on the issue.
The same holds true for the St. Louis minimum wage, which was scheduled to increase to $10.00 as of January 1, 2017.

Montana’s minimum wage will increase from $8.05 to $8.15 on January 1, 2017.

New Jersey’s minimum wage will increase from $8.38 to $8.44 on January 1, 2017.

While the minimum wage in New Mexico is not scheduled to increase in 2017, various local jurisdictions will see increases:

In Albuquerque, the minimum wage will increase from $8.75 to $8.80 on January 1, 2017. However, if the employer provides healthcare and/or childcare benefits to the employee during any pay period and pays an amount for these benefits equal to or in excess of an annualized cost of $2,500, the minimum wage will increase from $7.75 to $7.80.
In Bernalillo County, the minimum wage will increase from $8.65 to $8.70 as of January 1, 2017.
The minimum wage in Las Cruces will increase from $8.40 to $9.20 on January 1, 2017.

In New York, the minimum wage will increase from $9.00 to $9.70 on December 31, 2016. For fast-food employers outside of New York City, the minimum wage will increase from $9.75 to $10.75 on the same date.

The New York City minimum wage increase will see rates rise for businesses with 11 or more employees from $9.00 to $11.00 on December 31, 2016. For smaller employers, the minimum wage will increase from $9.00 to $10.50. For fast-food establishments in New York City, the minimum wage will increase from $10.50 to $12.00 on the same date.
In Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties, the minimum wage will increase from $9.00 to $10.00 on December 31, 2016.

The minimum wage in Ohio will increase from $8.10 to $8.15 as of January 1, 2017.

Oregon’s minimum wage will increase from $9.75 to $10.25 as of July 1, 2017, unless otherwise described below:

For employers within the state’s Urban Growth Boundary, the minimum wage increase on July 1, 2017 will be from $9.75 to $11.25.
For employers in frontier counties, the minimum wage increase on July 1, 2017 will be from $9.50 to $10.00 per hour.
For more information on this system, please read this summary.

In South Dakota, the minimum wage will increase from $8.55 to $8.65 as of January 1, 2017.

The minimum wage in Vermont will increase from $9.60 to $10.00 on January 1, 2017.

Washington’s minimum wage will increase from $9.47 to $11.00 on January 1, 2017. Meanwhile:

Seattle employers with 500 or more employees will see an increase in their minimum wage from $13.00 to $15.00 on January 1, 2017; those with 500 or fewer employees will see an increase from $12.00 to $13.00.
The SeaTac minimum wage applicable for hospitality and transportation workers will increase from $15.24 to $15.35 as of January 1, 2017.
In Tacoma, the minimum wage will increase from $10.35 to $11.15.

The minimum wage for federal contractors covered by those regulations and Executive Order 13658 (primarily those with Davis-Bacon Act and Service Contract Act contracts) will increase from $10.15 to $10.20 effective January 1, 2017.

For more information, visit our website at www.fisherphillips.com, or contact your regular Fisher Phillips attorney.

This Legal Alert provides an overview of state and local minimum wage increases. It is not intended to be, and should not be construed as, legal advice for any particular fact situation.

| Minimum Wage

Wage pressures coming?

11/20/2015 |

Wage pressures coming? U.S. companies start to sound the alarm

NEW YORK | By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK Early indications of wage pressures in pockets of corporate America have begun emerging in recent weeks, suggesting labor costs could be a bigger headwind for U.S. companies in 2016.

Over the course of the latest corporate earnings reporting season, executives from nearly 20 S&P 500 companies have flagged labor costs, shortages or wage pressure as headwinds.

That is up from about a dozen companies who singled out these concerns a quarter earlier and a year ago, a sign that more companies are talking about wage issues, an analysis of earnings season comments by Thomson Reuters showed.

Wage inflation has been largely nonexistent in the plodding economic expansion out of the Great Recession, a key factor behind the robust recovery in company profits over the past six years even as sales growth has remained muted.

Now, though, a combination of rising U.S. payrolls, political pressures to increase state and federal minimum wages and some industry-specific issues, such as expensive labor contracts in the airlines and automakers and labor shortages in construction, could finally be gelling to force up labor costs.

“The conditions are beginning to be in place for something that has been languishing really since the bottom of the recession,” said Mark Dawson, chief investment officer at Rainier Investment Management in Seattle. “We’re closer to the point where wage pressures in certain areas are increasingly going to be seen. I would expect it to be more of an issue next year.”

Wage concerns that started popping up a year ago in a handful of industries such as fast food restaurants and retailers have persisted and are spreading to a more diverse range of companies, including homebuilding and construction companies and airlines.

Wal-Mart (WMT.N), the world’s largest retailer, has said next year’s earnings could decline as much as 12 percent, partly because of costs to raise entry-level wages.

Executives at Shake Shack (SHAK.N) have said it plans to increase menu prices in January, though they do not expect those higher prices to fully offset higher labor costs.

For home builders, tight labor markets have been a constraint.

“No question, labor is tight. Reports coming out of other builders, we’re not immune to it,” David Auld, D.R. Horton’s president and chief executive said in a Nov. 10 conference call.

The company said it has been able to offset the higher costs so far through its prices.

Among other homebuilders citing labor as an issue, PulteGroup (PHM.N) reported a quarterly profit decline and said construction delays from labor shortages dampened sales. Also, Chief Financial Officer Bob O’Shaughnessy said during the earnings call Pulte is paying more to attract and retain labor.

Similarly, real estate investment trusts Ventas (VTR.N) and Welltower (HCN.N) mentioned concerns about wage pressures in the recent reporting period.

“It’s something that we are very focused on,” Scott Brinker, Welltower’s chief investment officer, said in a conference call.

Some industries are expecting higher labor costs from renewed contracts, such as the case with airlines.

Contract negotiations are in the works for pilots at major U.S. airlines United (UAL.N), Delta (DAL.N) and Southwest (LUV.N) that could result in higher wages and costs in 2016. Hospital providers, too, are citing higher employee costs.

When it warned on results last month and cited higher labor costs, HCA Holdings (HCA.N) triggered a selloff in the hospital provider space. Its labor costs as a percentage of sales increased in the third quarter from a year ago.

Universal Health Services (UHS.N) CFO Steve Filton, though, said the industry was not yet experiencing the same wage pressure as it was a decade ago.

To be sure, plenty of companies are still laying off workers to cut costs further, especially in the energy sector, which is hard hit by falling oil prices.

Last month, nonfarm payrolls recorded their largest gain since December 2014, while the unemployment rate fell to a 7-1/2-year low of 5.0 percent.

The number of unemployed persons to job openings is as low as it was in 2007, according to U.S. government data.

Moreover, the debate over whether to raise the minimum wage has been gaining steam and is a hot topic among U.S. presidential candidates, suggesting the issue is likely to persist at least through next year’s election.

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, compared with proposals for minimums of $12 to $15 an hour.

“It’s really a combination of more competition for low-wage workers, and the fact that there’s pressure to raise those wages in a number of jurisdictions and just in general,” said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by Jeffrey Dastin; editing by Linda Stern)

Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/19/us-usa-companies-laborcosts-idUSKCN0T82WN20151119#6oo6L7YtbeCHOfzQ.99

| Labor Costs Minimum Wage

Majority of Employers Support Hike in Minimum Wage, CareerBuilder Survey Finds

09/25/2015 |

Majority of Employers Support Hike in Minimum Wage, CareerBuilder Survey Finds

Majority of Minimum Wage Workers Can’t Make Ends Meet

Sep 18, 2015, 05:00 ET from CareerBuilder

CHICAGO, Sept. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Momentum is building behind raising the minimum wage, coming at a time when workers at all pay levels are struggling with keeping their heads above water. According to a new CareerBuilder survey, 64 percent of employers believe the minimum wage should be increased in their state, up from 62 percent last year.

While nearly 1 in 5 of all workers (19 percent) said they couldn’t make ends meet every month in the last year, workers who hold or have held minimum wage jobs were much more prone to experience financial difficulties.

“Americans’ wages have been stuck in a slow-growth pattern since the recession,” said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder. “As big name brands take measures to increase pay for minimum wage workers and the market overall grows more competitive for skilled labor, employers are going to start feeling more wage pressure when trying to attract and retain employees at all levels within the organization.”

The national online survey, conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder by Harris Poll between May 14 and June 3, 2015, included a representative sample of 2,321 full-time hiring and human resource managers and 3,039 full-time workers in the private sector across industries and company sizes.

What is fair minimum wage?

Twenty-six percent of employers said they plan to hire minimum wage workers this year. Only six percent of all employers believe the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) is fair. The majority (61 percent) felt a fair minimum wage is $10 or more per hour, up from 54 percent last year; and 11 percent said a fair minimum wage is $15 or more per hour, up from 7 percent last year.

The full breakdown of what employers consider to be a fair minimum wage is as follows:

$7.25 per hour: 6 percent
$8.00-$9.00 per hour: 24 percent
$10.00 per hour: 27 percent
$11.00-14.00 per hour: 23 percent
$15.00 or more per hour: 11 percent
No set minimum wage: 9 percent

Is it enough?

Of workers who currently have a minimum wage job or have held one in the past, 65 percent said they couldn’t make ends meet; 49 percent said they had to work more than one job to make ends meet.

But it’s not just minimum wage workers who are struggling. Nineteen percent of workers at all salary levels were not able to make ends meet during the past year. Sixty-five percent of all workers say they’re in debt and while most say it’s manageable, it should be noted that 16 percent of workers ages 25-34 still live with their parents, 18 percent of all workers have reduced their 401k contribution and/or personal savings in the last year and 28 percent don’t set aside any savings each month.

Percentage of workers who didn’t set aside money for savings in the last year:

Ages 18-24: 32 percent
25-34: 26 percent
35-44: 31 percent
45-54: 29 percent
55+: 24 percent
Total: 28 percent

Percentage of workers who don’t participate in retirement plans:

Ages 18-24: 69 percent
25-34: 41 percent
35-44: 33 percent
45-54: 26 percent
55+: 28 percent
Total: 36 percent

Survey Methodology
These surveys were conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,321 hiring and human resource managers ages 18 and over (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) and 3,039 employees ages 18 and over (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) between May 14 and June 3, 2015. With pure probability samples of 2,321 and 3,039, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have sampling errors of +/- 2.03 and +/- 1.78 percentage points, respectively.

About CareerBuilder®
As the global leader in human capital solutions, CareerBuilder specializes in cutting-edge HR software as a service to help companies with every step of the recruitment process from acquire to hire. CareerBuilder works with top employers across industries, providing job distribution, sourcing, workflow, CRM, data and analytics in one pre-hire platform. It also operates leading job sites around the world. Owned by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE: TGNA), Tribune Media (NYSE: TRCO) and The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

Media Contact
Ladan Nikravan
312.698.0538 x70538
ladan.nikravan@careerbuilder.com
http://www.twitter.com/CareerBuilderPR

SOURCE CareerBuilder

Minimum Wage Increases In Store For Many In 2017