Minimum wage pits Ford against the little people
Upping the minimum wage to $14 this year and then to $15 as of January was one of the many straws Kathleen Wynne grasped at in her bid to hang on to power.
In that regard, it was a faux-populist move. Her replacement, Doug Ford, goes even bigger on the faux populism – buck a beer! – in the vein of many would-be demagogues, most noticeably due south of here. Taking the opposite tack on the issue, however, Ford is taking aim at the $15 minimum wage.
It doesn’t matter that about two-thirds of Ontarians support the wage hike, including many of the “little people” Ford, claims to champion. What trumps that is opposition to higher wages by certain corporatists – i.e. the “elites” Ford says he opposes. Again, like a certain U.S. president, the premier says one thing for the low-information voter and does just the opposite.
Source: Observer
Several states putting minimum wage on the ballot in November
The fight to raise the minimum wage in the U.S. has found its way onto ballot referendums in several states as progressives seek ways to circumvent GOP-controlled legislatures that have largely been opposed to such measures.
The big picture: Most states have implemented minimum wages that exceed the $7.25-an-hour rate that has been federal law for the last nine years, Axios’ Steve LeVine writes. But according to a recent study from Oxfam, none of those minimums is sufficient to provide a living wage for a family.
Source: Axios
Sime Darby Plantation raises the minimum wage in Sabah, Sarawak
Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SD Plantation) is streamlining the minimum wage for its plantation workers in Sabah and Sarawak to that of those in Peninsular Malaysia, in anticipation of the new national rate that will come into effect in January 2019.
In a statement today, SD Plantation said the decision will raise the current minimum wage for plantation workers in the two states to RM1,000 per month, effective immediately, matching the minimum wage currently enjoyed by workers in the peninsula as stipulated under the law.
Under the Minimum Wages, Order 2016 made pursuant to the National Wages Consultative Council Act 2011, the minimum wage rate for Sabah and Sarawak is currently set at RM920 per month.
Source: The Edge Markets
Navigating mandatory minimum wage increases and historically low unemployment rates
There probably isn’t an employment topic that strikes a more passionate debate than increasing the minimum wage. Even during these times of historically low unemployment, politicians, economists, business leaders and small business owners are steadfast in their positions on the impact of raising the minimum wage on business, the local economy and macro-level economic trends.
In some cities, with minimum wages approaching $15 per hour, the debate is increasing in intensity. At the same time, with unemployment levels at generational lows, businesses that hire minimum wage employees struggle to attract and retain workers.
Source: HR Drive
Ryanair signs an agreement to heed Italian labour law
Ryanair has signed deals with cabin crew unions in Italy to provide employment contracts under Italian law, the Irish no-frills airline said on Tuesday ahead of a Europe-wide strike over working conditions.
The troubled Dublin-based carrier said in a statement that it has agreed on a collective labour agreement with the three main cabin crew unions: FIT CISL, ANPAC and ANPAV.
The deal will take effect on October 1, it added.
Tuesday’s news came after Ryanair reached a preliminary deal earlier this month.
However, some Italian crews, alongside their Belgian, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese counterparts, announced a 24-hour stoppage for Friday that unions claim will be the biggest strike in the carrier’s history.
Source: Business Day
Greece to Raise Minimum Wage First Time since 2009
The Greek government on Wednesday tabled to parliament a draft amendment to increase the minimum wage for the first time since 2009 when the economic crisis started.
Labor Minister Efi Achtsioglou is to submit the amendment to parliament today (Thursday) and ask for the fast-track procedure to legislate the amendment.
The move comes after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced a series of relief measures following the end of the third bailout program during the Thessaloniki International Fair.
The minimum wage, currently at €586 per month, will increase to €606-610 per month at the beginning of 2019, following talks between employers, unions and the ministry.
According to the labour ministry, the rise in the minimum wage is to reflect the improvement in the economy and at the same time reward the Greek people for the sacrifices they made during the crisis.
Source: Greek Reporter
Will N.J. get $15 minimum wage plan by end of the year? Not likely, top Democrat says
Gov. Phil Murphy has said one of his top priorities for the fall is for state lawmakers to send him a bill to gradually raise New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney cast doubt Wednesday night that officials will move by the end of the year to increase the state’s minimum wage from $8.60 to $15 an hour. He suggested it’s more likely negotiations will spill into 2019.
“I’m a believer in the $15 dollar minimum wage,” Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said on 101.5FM. “But I’m worried about small businesses.”
Source: NJ.com
$15 minimum wage coming January 1, 2019 — Ontario Workers launch the “15 Week Countdown to $15” with a Provincial Day of Action
TORONTO, Sept. 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Over 20 provincial ridings will see local actions on Saturday, September 15, kicking off the “15 Week Countdown” to Ontario’s $15 minimum wage, coming into effect on January 1, 2019.
Residents, community groups, and labour councils will be delivering a message to local MPPs asking them to stand with the people of Ontario against the attempt by corporate lobbyists to rollback Ontario’s new labour laws.
Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Ontarians (66%) support a $15 minimum wage — including 62% of small business owners — Big Business is leading a campaign to cancel the $15 minimum wage and roll back the 2 paid sick days and other laws that came into effect this year.
Source: West
Enforce Labour Laws, Private Sector Asks Government
Violation of Workers rights in Uganda has been attributed to government’s failure to implement policies and regulations that govern the labour sector in the country, Gideon Badagawa, the Executive Director of Private Sector Foundation Uganda has said.
Badagawa said Uganda has the best protective policies and regulations for workers but the government is not playing its role in enforcing them, something that has created a conducive environment for the employers especially in the private sector to exploit employees.
Source: Busiweek
What we know — and don’t know — about a $15 minimum wage ordinance for St. Paul
St. Paul is closer to raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour. Here’s what we know — and don’t know — about the new ordinance, which city officials hope to pass before the end of this year:
How did we get here?
Right now, Minnesota’s hourly minimum wage is $9.65 for large employers and $7.87 for smaller ones (except in Minneapolis, which just started phasing in a $15-an-hour minimum after the City Council changed the law last summer). It’s become increasingly common for cities to make their own such rules, however, and almost everyone who voted in St. Paul’s mayoral election last fall went for candidates who supported a minimum-wage hike, Mayor Melvin Carter has noted, and he made increasing the city’s pay scale a major part of his campaign.
Around that time, St. Paul officials assembled a team to study the pros and cons of a citywide hike — as well as what other cities are doing to boost wages for their lowest-paid workers. Some of the researchers were from the Citizens League, a nonpartisan think-tank.
Source: MinnPost
Greece wants to speed up minimum wage rise after bailout exit
The move comes a month after Greece emerged from its third international bailout.
It is a priority for the left-led government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, which in 2015 signed up to a new bailout despite its pre-election pledges to end austerity and increase wages.
The minimum wage was slashed by up to 32 percent to about 500 euros during the crisis as part of measures prescribed by the country’s lenders to make the labor market more flexible and the economy more competitive.
The increase to the minimum wage will be concluded by January 2019, following consultations between employers, unions and the government, according to the draft law.
Source: Reuters
The proposed minimum wage for RMG workers in Bangladesh inadequate
The proposed minimum monthly wage, Tk 8,000, for readymade garment workers is inadequate to meet their cost of living if various basic needs and the rate of inflation are considered, says Centre for Policy Dialogue research director Khondaker Golam Moazzem.
The structure of the proposed wage is also weaker than that of previous minimum wages as the portion of basic wage has now become thinner in the latest one, he points out, mentioning that the portion of basic payment has dropped to 51 per cent of total wage from that of 56.6 per cent in 2013 and 60 per cent in 2010.
Workers will get the lower amount in bonus, overtime allowance and other payments based on the basic wage, he says.
Source: New Wage Interview
Malaysia can only afford RM50 minimum wage hike, for now, says Kula
The government’s decision to raise the minimum wage to RM1,050 monthly is based on a review of the economic growth and financial situation in the country, Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran said today.
He said the increase of just RM50 for workers in Peninsular Malaysia was a “painful” decision and it was not meant to belittle their contributions, especially those in the bottom 40% of wage earners.
“This is not the end of the journey for minimum wage in Malaysia. We have been in power for the past four months only and we are determined to achieve the promises made in our manifesto, including the minimum wage agenda, by the end of our term.
“As far as the minimum wage is concerned, employers are required to be prepared for an increase over the coming years,” he said in a statement today.
Source: FMT News
Bangladesh unions reject $95 minimum wage for garment workers
Bangladesh unions staged street protests Friday (Sep 14) to reject what they called an “inhuman” US$95 a month minimum wage fixed by the government for the country’s four million garment workers.
Authorities said the new wage marked a 51 per cent rise and would be applied from December but hundreds of workers hit the streets of Dhaka within hours of the announcement vowing to fight for more.
Unions said they would organise action across Bangladesh.
The current minimum wage of 5,300 taka (US$63) was set in 2013 after at least 1,130 people were killed when the Rana Plaza garment factory in Dhaka collapsed. The new wage was set at 8,000 taka.
Source: Chanel News Asia
Proposals for minimum wage hike trigger debates in Nigeria
Proposals for new minimum wage hike involving representatives from the worker unions, employer organizations, the central and state governments have triggered heated debates in Nigeria.
Labour leaders are asking the federal government to increase the national minimum wage from 18,000 naira (50.07 U.S. dollars) to 56,000 naira (155.77 dollars).
The workforce said the development became imperative following the current economic realities especially the high rate of inflation in the country.
The 18,000 naira minimum wage was approved when the naira was exchanging at 145 naira to the dollar. The minimum wage has been 18,000 for over eight years.
Source: Xinhuanet.com
Yay Socialism! Venezuela Raises Minimum Wage… By 3,000%
Venezuelan workers who earned a pittance are now earning a slightly larger pittance, thanks to a big increase in the minimum wage. What they may not have our jobs.
Starting this week, 7 million employees are guaranteed 1,800 bolivars a month — worth about $20 at the black-market rate. President Nicolas Maduro intended the mandate as political boost, but it’s having the opposite effect as companies, already hit by Venezuela’s epic economic contraction, tell workers they can’t afford to keep them.
While there have been many similar moves in the past, never has one been so disruptive, arriving amid hyperinflation, depression and devaluation. Some employers are restructuring costs, rejiggering pay scales and negotiating settlements with workers. Others are simply dismissing people. Much of the action happens secretively as companies try to avoid punishment by the government, which has been jailing those it believes are flouting the rules.
Source: Hot Air
Labour Declares Stand Today On Minimum Wage
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is not ruling out strike to reopen stalled negotiations on its demand for better wages, NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, told The Guardian in an exclusive interview yesterday.
“If it becomes necessary to declare a strike action over the minimum wage imbroglio, we would do that.
But it will be communicated appropriately to the rank and file after the meeting of the organised labour,” he said.
Source: Sahara Reporters
Opinion: Due diligence for pay equity — Can we do it?
It’s a centuries-old problem of gender-based wage discrimination. We have an unacceptable gap between wages paid to women and men for equal work.
What happened? In the 1900s, women comprised 25 per cent of the workforce and suffered restrictive and severe working conditions, hours and wages.
Fast forward to 1938. The Fair Labor Standards Act provided some relief to 39 per cent of men, 14 per cent of women, prohibition of child labour and a minimum wage of $0.40 per hour. Strong opposition came from the Supreme Court. The National War Labor Board (1942) endorsed equal pay when women replaced men in the workforce. The “Prohibiting Discrimination in Pay on Account of Sex” (1942) legislation failed to pass. 1945 brought forth the Women’s Equal Pay Act. That also failed.
Source: Juneau Empire
Mothers of 57% newborns not entitled to maternity benefits
Nazarin has a two-and-a-half-month-old daughter. Born this July, two months before the due date, the girl looks extremely frail as the two wait for the doctor at a community health centre in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
In March, Nazarin registered for the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)—the Union government’s maternity benefit scheme that seeks to ensure pregnant women get proper nutrition—and should have received Rs 1,000 in her bank account by May. The rules of the scheme say that the first instalment of Rs 1,000 should be transferred before the completion of the fifth month of pregnancy, the second instalment of Rs 2,000 after the first antenatal checkup and the third instalment of Rs 2,000 when the birth is registered and the first set of vaccination done. But even by the end of September, Nazarin says, she has not received any money.
Source: DownToEarth
Increasing the Minimum Wage in Alberta: A Flawed Anti-Poverty Policy
Main Conclusions
As part of its effort to reduce poverty, Premier Rachel Notley’s government will raise Alberta’s minimum wage from $10.20 per hour, the rate when the Notley government took office three years ago, to $15 in October 2018. But, raising the minimum wage is not an effective way to alleviate poverty primarily because the policy fails to provide help targeted to families living in poverty.
In 2015, the latest year of available data, 92.0% of workers earning minimum wage in Alberta did not live in a low-income family. Though counterintuitive, it makes sense once we explore their age and family situation. In fact, most of those earning minimum wage are not the primary or sole in-come-earner in their family.
Source: Fraser Institute
Ontario to halt minimum wage hike planned for 2019
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government said it will halt a planned increase to the minimum wage that was scheduled to kick in next year, following up on a promise made during the spring election campaign.
Labour Minister Laurie Scott said Wednesday the minimum wage will remain at $14 an hour rather than rising to $15 as planned by the previous Liberal government.
The minister would not say whether the minimum wage would eventually go up, saying only that the government was conducting consultations on the issue.
Ontario’s minimum wage increased from $11.60 to $14 an hour on Jan. 1, drawing complaints from businesses and prompting some to raise prices and cut staff hours and employee benefits.
“The increase of 20 per cent this year was a lot for businesses to absorb so we’re putting a pause on the minimum wage,” Scott said.
Source: BNN Bloomberg
New Minimum Wage: Govt declares readiness to cooperate with Tripartite Committee
Governor Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa, has pledged to pay the new minimum wage that will be agreed upon by the tripartite committee constituted by the Federal Government.
caThe Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Jigawa chapter, Malam Usman Ya’u made the disclosure in Dutse on Sunday.
Ya’u said that in spite of the impasse in the committee’s meeting that led to the national leadership of the NLC giving a 14-day ultimatum, which started on Sept. 12, to the tripartite committee will finish its assignment and announce a new minimum wage.
Source: Daily Post
Workers’ wages must be paid twice a month, says the ministry
The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training on Friday announced a plan to oblige all enterprises under its oversight to pay workers’ and employees’ salaries twice a month starting from January next year.
According to the Prakas, signed by Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng, employees will get half of their salary in the second week and the remaining half together with other incentives and benefits in the fourth week of each month.
Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU) president Yang Sophorn said paying workers twice a month has both positive and negative effects.
Source: The Phnom Penh Post
Leonard resubmits change to introduce paternity leave law
Leonard, of the United Democrats, resubmitted a copy of the draft amendment to Parliament late last week and plans to lobby for as much support as possible for this change she sees as pivotal to family bonding and strength.
The law change was originally submitted to Parliament in December 2017. No meeting was ever convened on the topic.
Source: Daily Herald
Ramaphosa will soon sign Minimum Wage Bill into law, says Oliphant
Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant has told the business sector and labour unions that the Minimum Wage Bill is in the process of being signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Oliphant was speaking at the 23rd annual summit of the National Economic Development and Labour Council in Sandton.
The bill was approved by the National Council of Provinces last month and sent to the president to be signed into law.
Source: Eyewitness News
Maternity leave and pay
It is very disappointing to learn that many of our garment workers still do not get maternity leave with full pay and other benefits. And that working conditions in RMG factories are quite unfavourable to the female workers who are expecting. There is hardly any scope for them to sit or rest, let alone have the necessary medical check-ups done in the healthcare facilities inside the factories. Besides, the shoddy working conditions and a lack of hygiene in the factories are affecting women workers’ health in general.
Although the labour law in Bangladesh entitles workers to a 16-week maternity leave with full pay, a recent study has found that only 28.7 per cent of the workers get maternity leave for four months. Also, the general practice in factories is to give workers the entire 16 weeks’ salary when they re-join office after childbirth which is a violation of the labour law. The recently proposed Bangladesh Labour Law entitles workers to eight-weeks of maternity leave and other benefits before they go on leave. And although re-joining work two months after childbirth is harmful to both the mother and the child, the majority of workers as well as the employers are not even aware of the need for post-natal care. Then there are also cases of terminating workers during pregnancy.
Source: The Daily Star