Employment law expert reveals five common ways employees miss out on pay each week
The five most common ways Aussie workers are being cheated out of their hard-earned cash — every single week — have been revealed.
According to Shine Lawyers’ employment law expert Christie Toy, honest mistakes and deliberate miscalculations alike can seriously add up.
Source: News.com.au
Oregon’s minimum wage jumps Sunday
Oregon workers earning the minimum wage get a raise Sunday.
The minimum wage in the Portland area will jump 6.7 per cent, or 75 cents, to $12 an hour. For a full-time employee, that works out to more than $1,500 extra a year – and nearly $4,700 additional since spring 2017.
Sunday’s increase is the second in a series of annual hikes approved in 2016 that will raise the minimum wage in the Portland area to $14.75 an hour in 2022. The minimum wage in the Portland area jumped more than 15 per cent last year, the first year of the new pay schedule.
Oregon lawmakers approved the more aggressive set of minimum wage hikes in hopes of reducing the income disparities between the state’s wealthiest residents and those at the bottom of the pay scale.
The minimum wage applies differently across the state, accounting for varying costs of living. In most of the state, outside the Portland area, the hourly minimum wage will climb 50 cents to $10.75 beginning Sunday. It will be $10.50 in 18 largely rural counties.
Oregon has one of the highest minimum hourly wages in the nation. For comparison, it’s $13.25 in the District of Columbia, $11.50 in Washington, $11 in Massachusetts and California.
Source: Oregon Live
Reducing inequality with the minimum wage
A debate over raising the minimum wage often focuses on whether jobs will disappear. But economists have become increasingly interested in how an increase to the minimum might affect other outcomes as well, such as output and inequality.
A higher minimum wage will obviously raise pay for those who remain employed at the new minimum. But in a working paper for the Minneapolis Fed’s Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute, economists Niklas Engblom and Christian Moser find that a hike in the minimum, in fact, increases wages for other workers, too, including relatively high earners.
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
More Companies Than Ever Offer Paid Parental Leave
More than one in three U.S. employers offers paid maternity leave beyond the amount required by law, up from one in six earlier this decade, according to new data from the Society for Human Resource Management.
All 20 of the biggest companies in the U.S. now offer at least some paid maternity leave, with a handful of those employers offering time off for more than just the birth mother. Benefits such as paternity leave and “parental leave,” which includes new adoptive parents and same-sex couples, have also become more common.
Source: Bloomberg Quint
Maryland’s minimum wage to increase again
OCEAN CITY, Md. – Maryland workers will see a larger paycheck now that the minimum wage as of July 1st will increase to $10.10.
According to Maryland state law, the minimum wage will go up by a dollar each year until July 2022 when it reaches 15 dollars.
According to local businesses, the increase does not really hurt them and it benefits seasonal employees.
Source: 47 ABC
Massachusetts’s “Grand Bargain” Increases Minimum Wage, Ends Sunday Retail Premium Pay, and Provides Extensive Paid Leave
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker just signed into law the so-called “grand bargain” bill, which contains provisions that will have a significant effect on employers in the state. The law is a compromise designed to avoid potential ballot questions about an increase in the state minimum wage, paid leave, and a reduction in the state sales tax. It contains key employment-related provisions, including:
A gradual increase of the state’s minimum wage from the current $11.00 per hour to $15 per hour by 2023
Minimum Wage Increase and Premium Pay Elimination
The law will result in a gradual increase of the state minimum wage to $15.00 per hour through annual increases to $12.00, $12.75, $13.50, $14.25, and ultimately $15.00 in 2023. The law will also gradually increase the minimum wage applicable to tipped employees from the current rate of $3.75 per hour to $6.75 per hour in 2023.
In addition, the law will phase out time-and-one-half premium pay for retail workers on Sunday and certain holidays. The phase-out will decrease the applicable premium slightly each year, with no premium starting in 2023. The other Sunday and holiday work rules will still apply (work must be voluntary and refusal to work cannot be grounds for any type of penalty).
Source: National Law Review
Oregon’s minimum wage jumps Sunday
Oregon workers earning the minimum wage get a raise Sunday.
The minimum wage in the Portland area will jump 6.7 per cent, or 75 cents, to $12 an hour. For a full-time employee, that works out to more than $1,500 extra a year – and nearly $4,700 additional since spring 2017.
Sunday’s increase is the second in a series of annual hikes approved in 2016 that will raise the minimum wage in the Portland area to $14.75 an hour in 2022. The minimum wage in the Portland area jumped more than 15 per cent last year, the first year of the new pay schedule.
Oregon lawmakers approved the more aggressive set of minimum wage hikes in hopes of reducing the income disparities between the state’s wealthiest residents and those at the bottom of the pay scale.
The minimum wage applies differently across the state, accounting for varying costs of living. In most of the state, outside the Portland area, the hourly minimum wage will climb 50 cents to $10.75 beginning Sunday. It will be $10.50 in 18 largely rural counties.
Oregon has one of the highest minimum hourly wages in the nation. For comparison, it’s $13.25 in the District of Columbia, $11.50 in Washington, $11 in Massachusetts and California.
Source: Oregon Live
Minimum wage? It’s time to talk about a maximum wage
Most of our mainstream political discourse on “fighting inequality” has revolved – for years now – around the more narrow goal of eliminating extreme poverty. Few of our elected leaders ever dare suggest that maybe we ought to think about eliminating extreme wealth as well. Even the mere idea seems a laughing matter.
Congressman Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, knows all this from personal experience. Earlier this year, in a talk to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Ellison suggested that the time has come to start contemplating the notion of a “maximum wage”.
Source: The Guardian
Promoting Workplace Compliance Within Labour Supply Chains
As the Fair Work Ombudsman’s (FWO) Charity Collection Inquiry continues, charities and fundraising suppliers increasingly ask what they can expect once the inquiry’s findings are released.
On Monday the FWO released the findings of another inquiry, into the procurement of security services by local government, identifying measures for councils to improve their supply chain governance efforts. These lessons are readily applicable to charities and fundraising suppliers.
Source: PRObono Australia
3.5% minimum wage hike takes effect this Sunday
Early this month, the Fair Work Commission announced a surprise 3.5 per cent increase in the minimum wage and corresponding award wages, putting an extra $24.30 per week into the pay packed of Australia’s lowest-paid workers.
Once the increase takes effect, employers will be bound to pay a national minimum of $18.93 per hour.
At the time of the announcement, workplace advisory firm Employsure warned that many employers, particularly small businesses, would feel a significant pinch from the increase.
Source: My Business
Reducing inequality with the minimum wage
A debate over raising the minimum wage often focuses on whether jobs will disappear. But economists have become increasingly interested in how an increase to the minimum might affect other outcomes as well, such as output and inequality.
A higher minimum wage will obviously raise pay for those who remain employed at the new minimum. But in a working paper for the Minneapolis Fed’s Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute, economists Niklas Engblom and Christian Moser find that a hike in the minimum, in fact, increases wages for other workers, too, including relatively high earners.
The lowest earners enjoy a substantial increase when the minimum wage goes up, the economists find; middle earners receive a moderate increase, and top earners experience little or no rise. The result, therefore, is that “the policy change induced a notable decline in earnings inequality,” write Engbom and Moser, in “Earnings Inequality and the Minimum Wage: Evidence from Brazil” (IWP7). “At the same time, employment and output fall only modestly as workers relocate to more productive firms.”
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Guangdong’s Minimum Wages to Increase July 1
Last week, the Guangdong provincial government announced that they will increase the province’s statutory minimum wages from July 1, 2018.
The hike will boost minimum wages in Guangdong, one of China’s wealthiest provinces, by around RMB 200 (US$30.30) per month. It represents the province’s first increase in three years, with the exception of the city of Shenzhen, which administers its wages separately and also increased its minimum wage last year.
Like most regions in China, Guangdong sets different tiers of minimum wages according to the developmental status of the province’s urban clusters.
- Group A: This is the tier for Guangdong’s most developed cities. In this category, Shenzhen increased the monthly minimum wage from RMB 2,130 (US$322.58) to RMB 2,200 (US$333.18), while Guangzhou will increase it from RMB 1,895 (US$286.99) to RMB 2,100 (US$318.03).
- Both Shenzhen and Guangzhou will have hourly minimum wages of RMB 20.3 (US$3.07), with Shenzhen’s having increased from RMB 19.5 (US$2.95) and Guangzhou’s from RMB 18.3 (US$2.77).
- Group B: This tier boasts of cities like Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, and Zhuhai. Here the monthly wage will increase from RMB 1,510 (US$228.68) to RMB 1,720 (US$260.49), and the hourly wage from RMB 14.4 (US$2.18) to RMB 16.4 (US$2.48).
- Group C: This tier includes the cities of Huizhou, Jiangmen, Shantou, and Zhaoqing, where the monthly wage will increase from RMB 1,350 (US$204.45) to RMB 1,550 (US$234.74), and the hourly wage from RMB 13.3 (US$2.01) to RMB 15.3 (US$2.32).
- Group D: This tier consists of smaller cities like Chaozhou, Maoming, and Qingyuan, where the monthly wage will increase from RMB 1,210 (US$183.25) to RMB 1,410 (US$213.54), and the hourly wage from RMB 12 (US$1.82) to RMB 14 (US$2.12)
Source: China Briefing
Increased minimum wage takes effect August 1
Minister of Labour and Social Security Shahine Robinson yesterday announced a new national minimum wage and new hourly and weekly rates for security guards, effective August 1.
According to the minister, the new minimum wage will be increased from the current $6,200 per week to $7,000 per week, a 12.9 per cent movement, while the minimum rates for security guards will increase to $242.50 per hour, a 9.6 per cent rise, moving their basic weekly rates from $8,854 to $9,700 per week.
The minister also announced that she has recommended that a joint select committee of Parliament be appointed to deal with employment issues affecting the countries more than 30,000 security guards.
“I must point out that numerous concerns have been raised, and we must, therefore, take a serious look at what is happening in the industry,” she told the House.
Source: Jamaica Observer
Salary Payment in Tokens: German Labour Law Considerations
Tokens are sets of data assigned to a certain user on a distributed ledger based network. A company can create tokens by initial coin offerings (ICOs), or it can purchase tokens in the market and transfer them to its employees. Tokens have different characteristics, but most academic works focus on Bitcoin. This makes it difficult to take all the different token forms into consideration and review the individual peculiarities of each. In order to understand the specific employment law issues and potential problems, it is, therefore, necessary to give an overview of the different types of tokens, their possible categorisation and the respective ways of creating them.
“Coins” and tokens are often differentiated based on their technical function. Advocates of such differentiation understand coins to be directly attributable to and having an internal function for, a network, whereas tokens do not serve the network. Following such approach, Bitcoin and Ether would classify as coins, whilst OmiseGo would be deemed a token. This article does not make a distinction between coins and tokens, as it has no impact on the questions discussed.
Source: JDSUPRA
Commentary: It’s time to make parental leave a priority for everyone
Being a parent is a joyful and challenging experience. Being a parent in America is more challenging than it ought to be. And it’s past time both major political parties did something about it – by guaranteeing paid family leave for everyone.
A few days back from my own maternity leave – the third time around for our family – I am as conscious of my privilege in this area as I have ever been. As I return to my other day job of political strategist, and I’m looking hard at policy areas I would advise my own candidates to champion, it’s parental leave that’s at the top of the list.
Source: CBS News
The ripple effect of minimum wage increases
The mid-Willamette Valley had nearly 6,900 jobs paying the minimum wage of $10.25 in the summer of 2017 — roughly 4,300 in Linn County and 2,600 in Benton County, according to Oregon Employment Department data.
As of July 1, that minimum wage is scheduled to jump to $10.75. But pay also likely will be pushed up for many workers who make slightly more than the minimum wage, and that could create a massive impact on local shops, stores and other operations, according to experts.
Source: Democrat-Herald
Taiwan’s Central Bank advises govt. to increase the minimum wage
A report from Taiwan’s Central Bank suggests that in comparison to international averages, and Taiwan’s current financial situation, that there is still room for upward adjustment of the minimum salary in the country.
The report from the Central Bank suggests that raising the minimum wages across the country will not have a negative effect on employment numbers. On the contrary, the report suggests raising wages will improve the distribution of capital, and stimulate economic growth.
Source: Taiwan News
Quebec passes new labour standards
The Quebec legislature has passed new legislation that revamps many of the province’s labour standards.
For example, it increases the number of weeks of absence authorized for certain events associated with parental responsibilities, and clarifies and broadens the definition of “relative.”
The new law also provides that certain days of absence may also be taken for the benefit of persons, other than relatives, for whom an employee acts as a caregiver.
Quebec’s “Act to amend the Act respecting labour standards and other legislative provisions mainly to facilitate family-work balance” also specifies that conduct, verbal comments, actions or gestures of a sexual nature may be a form of psychological harassment.
Source: Employment Law Today
New UAE labour insurance policy protects expat workers from job loss
New UAE legislation that replaces bank guarantees for private sector labour recruitment with a low-cost insurance policy will reduce costs for employers and offer better protection to vulnerable low-income expat employees, analysts said.
“The implications for the employer is that it will have to pay a lower upfront amount but secure potentially much wider cover for employee entitlements,” said Sara Khoja, a partner in the employment team at law firm Clyde & Co in Dubai.
“The employee will have better protection as he or she can complain to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation in the event of non-payment of minimum entitlements and then the ministry can draw on the insurance to provide a payout.”
The new UAE Cabinet-approved legislation – unveiled by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, on Wednesday – do away with the Dh3,000 bank guarantee companies currently have to deposit for each new hire.
They will be replaced by a Dh60 insurance policy that offers workers protection for their workplace perks – such as an end of service benefits, holiday allowance, overtime allowance, unpaid wages, return air ticket and cases of work injury, with the maximum payout capped at Dh20,000 per person.
Source: The National
New minimum wage: FG, labour set for a showdown over Sept deadline
INDICATIONS emerged, yesterday, in Geneva, Switzerland, of a looming showdown between organised labour and the Federal Government over the September deadline for the commencement of the new minimum wage. While organised labour, as represented by Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, insisted that the September deadline was sacrosanct, the Federal Government said it was not realizable.
Addressing the 107th Session of the International Labour Conference, ILC, in Geneva, President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said the ongoing process on the new wage must be concluded and implementation begins in September as earlier agreed. Defending this position while speaking to journalists at the conference, Wabba said: “I have told you that at the tripartite committee, we all committed to a timetable and timeline which is known and everybody is aware of it.
Source: Vanguard
Migrant Employers Need to Get the Record Straight
From 1 April 2017, employers who incur a penalty for breaching employment standards have faced a stand-down period preventing them from recruiting migrant labour. The stand-down period is for six months, one year, 18 months, or two years, depending on the severity of the breach.
This is to protect migrant workers from exploitation and unfair labour practices. Some of the businesses that have incurred penalties have actually been owned by migrants themselves. There seems to be a lack of awareness of employment law, particularly the rules for maintaining staff records for holiday pay and entitlements, and health and safety laws.
If you are a migrant business owner who employs staff, it’s essential you know and follow New Zealand employment law. If you don’t, not only will you face penalties for your business but you may have your visa revoked.
Source: Scoop Business
Cambodian parliament passes draft minimum wage law
The Cambodian National Assembly last week passed the draft minimum wage law aimed at promoting decent living for workers. The draft law with 33 articles is aimed at creating employment opportunities, increasing worker productivity and pushing for more scope for investment. The minimum monthly wage now is $170 per month. It was $40 in 1997.
Labor Minister Ith Samheng said at the National Assembly’s session that strengthening mechanism to increase the minimum wage is indeed important, according to Cambodian media reports.
A draft of the law handed over to unions and employers in Cambodia in April this year was devoid of the controversial clauses in earlier versions that penalised individuals for protesting or putting pressure on the wage determination process.
Source: Fibre2Fashion.com
The Minimum wage being raised for public servants – New Zealand
Public service employees will now be paid at least $20.55 an hour, which works out to be $42,744 a year, Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins announced today.
The wage increase will be implemented with a one-off adjustment in pay with effect by September 1.
The majority of the workers who will benefit work in administration, welfare, contact centres and as assistant customs officers across 13 government departments,
“This decision is about supporting fair pay and employment conditions for a decent standard of living for all New Zealanders,” Mr Hipkins said.
“This Government strongly believes that every worker should be in a situation where the pay they receive means they can at least make ends meet.”
Source: TVNZ
Costco to raise the minimum wage to $14 for all workers
Costco employees will have more money in their paychecks as the company announced it will raise the minimum wage for all hourly employees.
Starting June 11, Costco’s 130,000 hourly workers will earn at least $14 an hour, almost doubling the current federal minimum wage of $7.25.
KABC reports Costco’s previous minimum wage was at most $13.50, depending on store locations.
Source: Local 10 News
Missouri’s 2018 Legislative Session Ends With Changes in Governance and Employment Law
In the final days of Missouri’s 2018 legislative session, lawmakers passed dozens of bills, including those related to changes to prevailing wage payments and to the merit system for state workers. As of May 30, 2018, those bills and others had been forwarded to the desk of former Missouri governor Eric Greitens.
The path to enactment for the pending employment bills was thought to be more encumbered than expected following Greitens’s May 29, 2018, resignation announcement. Making his final hours count, Greitens signed two of three pending employment bills into law on Friday, June 1: Senate Bill (S.B.) 1007, which modifies the merit system for state employees, and House Bill (H.B.) 1413, which makes several changes to Missouri public sector labour law.
Source: The National Law Review
Poland’s labour ministry proposes a higher minimum wage
The ministry wants the minimum hourly pay upped to PLN 14.70.
The minimum wage is currently set at PLN 2,100 a month, or 47.3 per cent of the forecast average wage in Poland this year.
Minimum hourly pay at the moment is PLN 13.70.
The labour ministry’s proposals will be discussed by the Cabinet on Tuesday. The average monthly wage in Poland in the first quarter of this year rose to PLN 4,622, the country’s Central Statistical Office said last month.
Source: The News
Western Visayas wage board approves the minimum wage hike
The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Western Visayas has approved a minimum wage hike for private sector workers.
The decision was issued more than two months after a previously filed Wage Order lapsed on March 26 this year.
RTWPB Region 6 Chairman Johnson Cañete, in a press briefing at the Sugar Workers Development Center in Bacolod City Monday afternoon, announced that the new minimum wage rates in the region and cost of living allowance (COLA) are P295 and P365 per day, respectively.
Source: GMA News Online
UIF benefits now extended to a full year
Sweeping changes to the Unemployment Insurance Act will mean that contributors who lose their jobs can draw benefits for up to a year instead of for eight months.
The department of labour plans to use part of the R133.3 billion surplus in the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to expand the scope and reach of benefits, through amendments to the act which are due to come into effect soon.
Source: The Citizen
B.C.’s new minimum wage now in effect
B.C.’s minimum wage is going up by $1.30 Friday to boost the province’s current wage of $11.35 per hour to $12.65.
The wage increase is part of the provincial government’s plan to raise the current wage to just over $15 per hour by 2021.
To make that happen, the minimum wage will increase every year until that amount is met:
- June 1, 2019: $13.85 an hour ($1.20 increase)
- June 1, 2020: $14.60 an hour ($0.75 increase)
- June 1, 2021: $15.20 an hour ($0.60 increase)
Source: British Columbia
Costco just became an even more appealing place to work after raising its minimum wage to $14 an hour
About 130,000 Costco employees are about to get a boost. In a call with investors on Thursday, Costco’s CFO, Richard Galanti, confirmed that the retailer would be raising its minimum wage from $13 to $14, effective June 11.
Warehouse employees will receive an increase of between $0.25 to $0.50 an hour, he said. The wage increase comes in the wake of the GOP’s corporate tax cuts, which has encouraged companies to raise wages and even hand out bonuses to employees.
Earlier this year, Walmart also announced that it would raise starting wages for its hourly employees from $9 to $11 and would offer a one-time cash bonus of up to $1,000 to other employees who are not impacted by these increases.
More than 1 million employees would benefit from this, according to Walmart. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said that the wage increases were a direct result of the tax cuts, which could also help the company to offer lower prices for customers, provide more training for sales associates, and investment in technology.
The same day that this news broke, Walmart also announced that it would be closing 63 of its 660 Sam’s Clubs warehouse stores, costing thousands of employees their jobs.
Source: Business Insider
Trade Union Law effective: Labour Ministry
The Labour Ministry and the Arbitration Council Foundation yesterday attributed a sharp decline in labour dispute cases last year to a Trade Union Law enacted in 2016.
ACF yesterday held a national conference promoting effective governance related to industrial relations.
It reported that over the course of 15 years, the council has received a total of 2,650 labour dispute cases involving one million garment workers. The report added that 75 per cent of labour disputes were resolved.
In 2017, there were only 50 reported cases, it noted, a drop from 248 cases in 2016 and 338 cases in 2015.
The ACF also said that 87 per cent of disputes were related to the garment manufacturing sector and tourism.
Mam Vannak, a Labour Ministry secretary of state, said that the decline can be attributed to the Trade Union Law law passed in 2016.
“We notice that since the Trade Union Law was enacted, employers and employees seem more cooperative in finding solutions,” he said. “So the number of labour disputes sent to the council has declined. This is what we are happy about and it’s a no-headache solution.”
Men Nimmith, ACF executive director, said that the council used to receive hundreds of cases.
Source: Khmer Times
Fair Work Commission rules on minimum wage
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has today announced its decision to increase the national minimum wage by 3.5% from 1 July 2018.
This means that for about 200,000 workers who are paid the national minimum wage, base wages will increase from $18.29 an hour or $694.90 per 38-hour week to $18.93 an hour or $719.20 per week.
As in previous years, the FWC also increased minimum wages for up to 2.3 million workers who have their pay set by any of the 122 modern awards by 3.5%.
Source: HRD Australia
INSIDE LABOUR: Minimum wage, innovation and persecution
It will probably be a year before the controversial minimum wage bill passes through the National Council of Provinces and becomes law. By then, especially taking account of the 1 percentage point VAT increase to 15% and the hike in the fuel levy, the living costs of lower-paid workers will have risen greatly.
Supporters of the measure tend to stress R3 500 a month as the proposed minimum income, with President Cyril Ramaphosa pointing out that more than 6 million workers are paid less than this. Therefore, it is argued, this large group stands to benefit from the legislation.
Source: Fin24
Minimum wage increased by 3.5% to $18.93 an hour
The stronger economic forecast has allowed an increase of the national minimum wage by 3.5%, taking it to $18.93 per hour.
But the increase decided upon by the Fair Work Commission on Friday is well below the 7.2% called for by unions.
The FWC decision sets the new minimum wage at $719.20 a week. That will mean wages will rise by $24.30 a week for about two million workers.
The commission pointed to stronger economic indicators and forecasts from the federal government, the International Monetary Fund and the Reserve Bank.
Source: The Guardian