D.C. Commits to $15 Minimum Wage by 2020

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

July 13, 2016

by KIM SZARMACH

Mayor Muriel Bowser signed legislation on June 27 that had been unanimously approved by D.C. Council to raise D.C.’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020. The minimum wage was increased to $11.50 on July 1 in accordance with a 2013 D.C. amendment, but the wage will rise faster from year to year because of the new Fair Shot Minimum Wage Amendment Act of 2016.

The legislation also increases base-pay for tipped workers, though many advocates have argued in favor of one minimum wage for all. “We believe that D.C. should follow the model of more and more jurisdictions around the country,” testified DC Fiscal Policy Institute Senior Analyst Ilana Boivie at a May hearing about the bill, “to eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers altogether, to address the severe income stability and other challenges these workers face.” District employers are responsible for making up the difference if their employees’ tips do not add up to at least minimum wage.

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D.C.’s New Wage Theft Law Imposes Additional Notice, Posting and Recordkeeping Requirements on Employers

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
Friday, January 23, 2015

Last October, we reported on D.C.’s soon-to-be-enacted D.C. Wage Theft Prevention Amendment Act. This Act, which amends several existing D.C. wage and hour laws, includes new notice requirements and retaliation protections, increases employer liability for wage and hour violations and introduces a new administrative hearing process – all changes that employers with D.C.-based employees need to be aware of.

The Act becomes effective on February 26, 2015.  Previously, the Act was slated to go into effect on January 14, 2015, but an emergency amendment pushed back that date.  There is a chance it is pushed back again and we will update this post accordingly if that happens.  An overview of the key provisions follows below.

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Gov. Cuomo signs new legislation making it easier for workers and the state Labor Department to fight wage theft

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS / Sunday, January 4, 2015, 2:00 AM 

It feels good to be able to write about something positive for New York workers in my first column of 2015. After all, measures that benefit them and rein in abuses by their bosses are as rare as snow in August.

It took a long time but on Monday Gov. Cuomo gave a last-minute Christmas gift to hundreds of thousands of low-wage laborers across the state by signing legislation making it easier for workers and the state Department of Labor to fight wage theft, which in New York has been an epidemic for many years.

“I am tired of waiting,” said Marcos Lino, who filed a complaint with the Department of Labor in 2008 after enduring four years of being shortchanged by his boss in a small Flushing grocery store. Six years have passed and his case is still unresolved.

Hopefully now Lino – and thousands more who, like him, have waited far too long to recover what is rightfully theirs – will finally get some justice.

“The groundbreaking legislation signed today will protect both workers from abuse, and law-abiding businesses from being undercut by employers who turn a profit by breaking the law,” said Andrew Friedman, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy.

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