- “AP Writes Over 1300 Words on the Loss Of Summer Jobs for Teens, Never Mentions Minimum Wage” [Coyote, AP] “In Denmark the minimum wage jumps up by 40% when a worker turns 18.” And once workers hit that age their employment levels drop by a third [Alex Tabarrok] More: Bryan Caplan;
- I’m quoted on how Fair Labor Standards Act’s pressure to impose 9 to 5 clock-punching regime pulls in opposite direction from modern trends in workplace organization [Karl Herchenroeder, PJ Media] Podcast on latest developments in Department of Labor overtime rules [Federalist Society with Tammy McCutchen]
- One thing Seattle was doing with its minimum wage hike: widening inequality [Coyote] A hygiene angle on Seattle [Tyler Cowen] Why should Minneapolis pay attention to Seattle, anyway? [Christian Britschgi, Reason] Or Montgomery County, Md.? [Glynis Kazanjian, Maryland Reporter]
- “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished – The Supreme Court May Decide Whether Payments for Meal Breaks Can Offset Alleged Off-The-Clock Work” [Kara Goodwin and Noah Finkel, Seyfarth Shaw on certiorari petition in Smiley v. E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Company]
- Philadelphia chamber files First Amendment challenge to city law barring inquiries about applicant’s past pay [Stephanie Peet and Timothy McCarthy, WLF]
- “Oregon Wants to Regulate Flexible Work Schedules Out of Existence” [Christian Britschgi, Reason]
Search Results for ‘obama overtime’
Thomas Perez, moderate?
The Democratic Party has selected as its DNC chair Thomas Perez, widely described as the Establishment choice. Perez didn’t give off much of an impression of moderation in the Obama cabinet, however, where he was a leading symbol of regulatory lawlessness, hauled up repeatedly by the courts for trampling employers’ rights. See, for example, Gate Guard (Fifth Circuit describes conduct of DoL as “vindictive,” “indefensible,” “bad faith”), the we-know-where-you-live “persuader” rule (blasted by ABA, enjoined by judge), and of course mid-level overtime (enjoined by judge). More: Dan McLaughlin (Perez’s manipulation of fair housing litigation); John Fund (hiring practices at DoJ civil rights division).
Fighting the last war, on courts and executive power
Some on the left are still blasting judges as activist for standing up to Obama administration assertions of executive power in the regulatory sphere. That might prove shortsighted considering what’s on the agenda for the next four years, or so I argue in a piece in Sunday’s Providence Journal.
I take particular exception to a Bloomberg View column in which Noah Feldman, professor at Harvard Law, assails federal district judge Amos Mazzant III for enjoining the Department of Labor’s overtime rule for mid-level employees (earlier). In a gratuitous personal jab, Feldman raises the question of “whether Mazzant sees an opportunity for judicial advancement with this anti-regulatory judgment” in light of the election results, though he offers not a particle of evidence that the judge, an Obama appointee, is angling for higher appointment under the new administration.
The problems with the overtime rule were both substantive and procedural. As I mention in the piece, “more than 145 charitable nonprofits signed a letter begging the department to allow more than a 60-day public comment period. It refused.” That letter is here (via, see Aug. 5, 2015 entry). I also mention that a court recently struck down the Department of Labor’s very bad “persuader rule” that would have regulated management-side lawyers and consultants; more on that from Daniel Fisher, the ABA Journal, and earlier.
After pointing out that many of the rulings restraining the Obama administration have been written or joined by Democratic-appointed judges, I go on to say:
Judges rule all the time against the partisan side that appointed them.
And we’ll be glad of that when the Trump executive orders and regulations begin to hit, and Republican-appointed federal judges are asked to restrain a Republican White House, as they have often done in the past.
We should be celebrating an energetic judiciary that shows a watchful spirit against the encroachments of presidential power.
Witching hour for midnight regulations
There’s hope for stopping some of the regulations that the Obama administration began dropping in its last months before heading out the door, including the arguably worst of all, overtime for mid-level workers, now blocked by a federal judge in Texas [Kathy Hoekstra/Watchdog, McClatchy, Brittany Hunter/FEE; Virginia Postrel (“Not every workplace is, or aspires to be, the civil service. Not every worker longs to be on an assembly line.”)]
Wage and hour roundup
- “Study: Minimum Wage Cost Germany 60,000 Jobs” [Axel Schrinner, Handelsblatt]
- Even they can’t comply: federal Department of Labor settles overtime claims with its own employees [J. William Manuel, Bradley Arant]
- “50 Business Groups Sue Feds Over Upcoming Overtime Rule” [Connor Wolf, Inside Sources, related, Daniel Fisher on suit by 21 states] “With all these efforts to block it, can employers relax?” [Robin Shea]
- Translation: it’s time to throw many more disabled persons into involuntary unemployment [proposal to end sub-minimum wage exemption in disabled work centers, earlier here and here]
- Dems’ $15-and-index platform plank would set a “policy written for the nation’s very wealthiest enclaves, but incoherent for economically distressed regions.” [IBD]
- Efforts to measure early impacts of Seattle minimum wage hike [Charles Hughes/Cato, Tim Worstall, Sean Higgins/Washington Examiner]
Wage and hour roundup
- “President Obama says there is ‘no solid evidence’ [that higher minimum wages kill jobs]. Yes there is — lots of it.” [Tyler Cowen channeling David Neumark etc.] “The minimum wage arose in the early 20th century as a Progressive policy designed to [harm] low-wage workers,” and it worked [Deirdre McCloskey]
- “The car wash industry: a case study of how the $15 minimum wage will destroy immigrant jobs” [Jim Epstein, Reason] “Weak Enforcement Will Blunt the Impact of New York’s $15 Minimum Wage” [same] District of Columbia jumps with its own $15 law [Charles Hughes, Cato]
- Ugly Betty, stranded in Queens? New overtime edict could cut off entry-level jobs in fields like fashion journalism [New York Times] New overtime regs draw fire from one left-leaning group whose own paid canvassing operations are affected, PIRG (Public Interest Research Group);
- New York attorney general, in legal action, seeks to hold Domino’s liable for franchisees’ alleged wage underpayment [Reuters]
- Millions of workers had better get used to time sheets or corresponding apps from now on [Bill Pokorny, SHRM via Steve Miller on Twitter] Travel time will make an added complication [Daniel Schwartz] A “‘deer-in-the-headlights moment’ for small businesses” [Akin Oyedele, Business Insider]
- Will Republicans in Congress block the overtime rule? [Connor Wolf, Daily Caller] Or will Congress take the less principled step of merely exempting itself? [Veronique de Rugy, earlier]
An on-the-clock future for white-collar work in America?
Welcome to Thomas Perez’s new on-the-clock white-collar workplace, in which employers will be under the legal gun to monitor lunch breaks, revoke permission to telecommute, disallow “comp time” setups allowing a day with the kids, and forbid email or company-cellphone use after business hours. I’ve got a link-heavy new post at Cato surveying the damage after the Department of Labor’s final adoption of its new overtime rules, much criticized already in this space. The press is already reporting on the business consequences.
Wage and hour roundup
- Finally, Republicans introduce bill to stop Obama’s overtime edict [SHRM, Connor Wolf, Veronique de Rugy] “Congress realizes new overtime rules stink” at least as applied to themselves [Suzanne Lucas, Evil HR Lady, earlier] Knowing whether you’re in FLSA compliance can be tricky enough to fool HR specialists [Eric Meyer]
- “German army forced to lay down weapons due to ‘overtime limits'” [Telegraph, U.K.]
- “Minimum Wage Hike Kills Popular Upstate NY Eatery” [Legal Insurrection] “Please don’t be the reason the future of our farm ends here and now” [WENY, upstate New York]
- “How raising the minimum wage hurts disabled workers” [Naomi Schaefer Riley, Philanthropy Daily] Maryland moves to end exception that allowed workshop programs for the disabled to pay subminimum wages, and if clients sit at home as a result, at least they’ll have their rights on [Capital News Service]
- Proposed D.C. ordinance restricting “predictive scheduling” of employee hours would snarl retail and restaurant operations [E. Faye Williams, Huff Post]
- “Economically, minimum wages may not make sense,” said Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown, and then proceeded to sign the bill [Scott Shackford, Reason] “UC Berkeley Touts $15 Minimum Wage Law, Then Fires Hundreds Of Workers After It Passes” [Investors Business Daily]
Labor and employment roundup
- Immigration-related rules on the one hand, national-origin discrimination rules on the other: “Employers could get sued for following the law” [Sean Higgins, Washington Examiner]
- Should anyone doubt labor relations as an academic field tilts way left, here are numbers [Mitchell Langbert, Econ Journal Watch]
- Connecticut high court opens door to letting kids of dismissed workers sue employers for lost consortium, on top of suits filed by the parents themselves [Daniel Schwartz]
- Obama scheme to yank millions of workers off salaried status is a real economic menace [Trey Kovacs, CEI, earlier]
- Panel discussion marks 80th anniversary of National Labor Relations Act with lawprofs Richard Epstein and John Raudabaugh, Bill Samuel (AFL-CIO) and Mark Schneider (Machinists), moderated by Hon. Joan Larsen of Michigan Supreme Court [Federalist Society video, National Lawyers Conference]
- “Employment-related class action settlements hit high in 2015” [12th annual Seyfarth Shaw Workplace Class Action Litigation Report via Staffing Industry Analysts] EEOC Employee Charge trends, annual report [Hiscox, and note map on p. 4 of employee lawsuit hotspots including Illinois, California, Nevada, and New Mexico]
Labor and employment roundup
- Really, I never want to hear one word ever again about Gov. Andrew Cuomo being “at least good on economic issues” [Peter Suderman and Nick Gillespie, Reason (New York will mandate $15/hour for most fast-food workers, which in many upstate cities could amount to 75 percent of average wage); Heather Briccetti/New York Post (activists bused from one hearing to next to jeer opponents); Nicole Gelinas/City Journal (Cuomo picks online guy to represent business on brick-and-mortar-endangering wage board), Joanna Fantozzi/The Daily Meal (possible legal challenge); Coyote on Card and Krueger study]
- Labor markets don’t behave the way sentimental reformers wish they behaved, part 53,791 [Seattle minimum wage hike: Mark Perry (largest half-year decline in foodservice jobs in region since Great Recession; but see, Brian Doherty on problems with that number series) and Rick Moran (“Employees are begging their bosses to cut their hours so they can keep their food stamps, housing assistance, and other welfare benefits.”); David Brooks via Coyote]
- Employers scramble to monitor, control time worked in response to Obama overtime decree [WSJ] “No one wants to go back to filling out time sheets…. managers fear (rightly) that I will have to set arbitrary maximum numbers of work hours for them.” [Coyote] Business resistance aims for the moment at (deliberately abbreviated) public comment period [Sean Higgins, Washington Examiner] “Can Obama Really Raise Wages for Millions of People So Easily? Quick answer: no” [David Henderson; WSJ/@scottlincicome on seasonal pool-supply company]
- Hillary Clinton and the Market Basket Stores myth [James Taranto]
- Labor Department proposes tightening regulation of retirement financial advisers [Kenneth Bentsen, The Hill]
- Proposed: “well-orchestrated” state ballot initiatives aimed at overturning employment at will [Rand Wilson, Workplace Fairness] My view: “Everybody wins with at-will employment” [Ethan Blevins, Pacific Legal amicus briefs in Supreme Court of Washington, followup on oral argument, and thanks to PLF for citing my work in its amicus brief in Rose v. Anderson Hay and Grain; much more on employment at will in my book The Excuse Factory, also some here]
- The SEIU’s home caregiver membership motel: you can check in, but just try checking out [Watchdog Minnesota Bureau]