Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Wage and hour roundup

  • Among this administration’s most notable accomplishments — hurrah for Labor Sec. Alex Acosta and team — is to ditch its predecessor’s horrible overtime rules [Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post on opinion letters and internships] DoL rollback of Obama rules on tip pooling is fully justified [Christian Britschgi]
  • “A Seattle Game-Changer? The latest empirical research further underscores the harm of minimum wage laws” [Ryan Bourne, Regulation mag] “Report: California’s $15 Minimum Wage Will Destroy 400,000 Jobs” [Scott Shackford]
  • It just couldn’t have been Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne’s fault that some donut-franchise workers saw benefits and breaks trimmed after a minimum wage hike. “Instead, she attacked the employers.” [David Henderson; Robyn Urback/CBC and May Warren/Toronto Metro on changes by owners of some Tim Horton outlets]
  • Study: grocery stores hike prices when minimum wage rises, “poor households are most negatively affected” [Tyler Cowen on Renkin, Montialoux, and Siegenthaler paper] New York enacts a minimum wage law applying to restaurant chains with at least 30 outlets, and presto-change-o, some upstate pizzerias have new names and are now separate businesses [Geoff Herbert, Syracuse.com]
  • “Employer Responsibilities under the Fair Labor Standards Act After a Disaster” [Annamaria Duran, SwipeClock, promotional material for software product but informative even so]
  • If lawsuits succeed in forcing ridesharing into employment mold, many will find it less attractive to earn money by driving [Coyote]

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One Comment

  • The basic premise of higher minimum wage demands and other rules (like on tip sharing and overtime rules and lunch break rules….) is “its not fair” and “oppression!”. It seems to be believed that 1) employers are making huge profits, 2) employees are trapped in their jobs and are therefore 3) exploited. While it is true that some bosses are jerks, such places of work tend to see high turnover which is bad for business. “The boss is unfair” is also the view of some employees if the boss merely expects them to be on time and comb their hair and not yell at customers. To those who view any requirement that they actually work as oppression, no wage is high enough, but that reflects someone who is reality challenged. As far as being exploited, the boss is also exploited by paying people to do work for a wage he may view as more than they are worth.

    • By cc