We’re in the Money Now

Wages Remain A Hot Topic   

Compensation is a technical topic for HR wonks. “How much is your salary?” used to be considered a socially boorish question, but it seems like everyone is talking about wages and pay.

The minimum wage, wage theft and tipping are all in the news today.  Who’s saying what?  Let’s start with this.

Hillary Clinton out against tipped wages.

“It is time we end the so-called tipped minimum wage,” she said at a rally at the Javits Center on Wednesday. “We are the only industrialized country in the world that requires tipped workers to take their income in tips instead of wages.”

She continued, to loud cheers, to explain how tipped workers have been paid as little as $2.30 an hour.

“That’s shameful,” she said.

Oregon Employers Face New Minimum Wage Law

• Effective July 1, 2016, Oregon will have a unique three-tiered minimum wage rate that varies by region.
• Tips cannot be applied toward any minimum wage obligations the employer has, but the costs of meals and lodging can.
• Certain workers with disabilities, student-learners and inmates in work-release programs may be paid less than the minimum wage following the appropriate application process.

Smart Phone App To Help Track Wage Theft

From a report in the New York Times comes news of a new app for day laborers to help document wage theft.

After three years of planning, an immigrant rights group in Jackson Heights is set to start a smartphone app for day laborers, a new digital tool with many uses: Workers will be able to rate employers (think Yelp or Uber), log their hours and wages, take pictures of job sites and help identify, down to the color and make of a car, employers with a history of withholding wages. They will also be able to send instant alerts to other workers. The advocacy group will safeguard the information and work with lawyers to negotiate payment.

Stay tuned on this one. Things will remain hot throughout 2016.