- States Decide Key Ballot Measures on Minimum Wage, Paid Sick Leave
- NLRB Rules Captive Audience Meetings Are Unlawful
- Report: Wall Street Bonuses Will Rise for the First Time Since 2021
- Southwest Offering Buyouts to Airport Workers
- Boeing Will Repay Furloughed Staff, Proceed with Job Cuts
States Decide Key Ballot Measures on Minimum Wage, Paid Sick Leave
The 2024 elections have concluded, and employers may want to keep an eye on the outcomes of several key state ballot measures that likely will have significant implications for wage policies, employee benefits and compliance requirements, according to employment law firm Ogletree Deakins.
Voters in Alaska approved Ballot Measure 1, the “Minimum Wage Increase and Paid Sick Leave Initiative,” passing with nearly 57% of the vote. The measure will increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by July 1, 2027, provide employees the ability to accrue up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year at employers with 15 or more employees and up to 40 hours at employers with less than 15 employees, and would prohibit captive audience meetings.
Missouri voters approved Proposition A, known as the “Minimum Wage and Earned Paid Sick Time Initiative,” with nearly 58% voting in favor. The measure will increase the minimum wage to $13.75 per hour by 2025 and to $15.00 per hour by 2026. Additionally, the measure adopts a new law that will require employers with 15 or more employees to allow employees to use up to 56 hours of paid sick time per year and employers with fewer than 15 employees to allow employees to use up to 40 hours of paid sick time per year. Employees will accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, beginning May 1, 2025.
Nebraska voters approved Initiative 436, the “Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act,” with nearly 75% of the vote. The measure will require employers with at least 20 employees to provide up to seven days, or 56 hours, of earned paid sick leave per year and employers with fewer than 20 employees up to 40 hours per year. Under the measure, employees will start accruing paid sick time on Oct. 1, 2025.
In California, a ballot proposition to raise the state’s minimum wage to $18 an hour is too close to call, according to CalMatters. As of this article’s publication, “no” votes are leading, 51% to 49%, with 89% of cast votes counted.
Proposition 32 would raise the state minimum wage to $17 for the rest of the year and then to $18 starting in January for large employers. Smaller employers — those with 25 or fewer workers — would be required to pay at least $17 in January and at least $18 in January 2026.
If the measure does not pass, the lowest-paid workers will still get a 50-cent raise to $16.50 in January. If it does pass, the measure would give California the highest state minimum wage in the nation.
NLRB Rules Captive Audience Meetings Are Unlawful
On Nov. 13, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in the matter of Amazon.com Services LLC that requiring employees to attend a meeting in which an employer expresses its views about unionization — commonly referred to as a captive audience meeting — is a violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
The decision overrules Babcock and Wilcox Co., with the board explaining captive audience meetings violate Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA “because they have a reasonable tendency to interfere with and coerce employees in the exercise of their Section 7 rights.”
The board stated several reasons why captive audience meetings interfere with employees’ rights under the Act:
- Such meetings interfere with an employee’s right under Section 7 of the Act to freely decide whether, when and how to participate in a debate concerning union representation, or refrain from doing so;
- Captive audience meetings provide a mechanism for an employer to observe and surveil employees as it addresses the exercise of employees’ Section 7 rights; and
- An employer’s ability to compel attendance at such meetings on pain of discipline or discharge lends a coercive character to the message regarding unionization that employees are forced to receive. The employer’s ability to require attendance at such meetings demonstrates the employer’s economic power over its employees and reasonably tends to inhibit them from acting freely in exercising their rights.
The board also made clear that this change will be applied prospectively only.
Report: Wall Street Bonuses Will Rise for the First Time Since 2021
For the first time in three years, firms in the financial services industry will award larger year-end bonuses, according to a report from Johnson Associates, Inc., a New York-based compensation consulting firm.
The report found investment banking underwriters are projected to receive the largest increases, up between 25% to 35%, followed by a 15% to 25% increase for investment banking equity underwriters. The report includes analysis of 13 of the nation’s largest investment and commercial banks and 17 of the largest traditional and alternative asset management firms.
Heading into 2025, Wall Street firms are optimistic about their prospects, said Alan Johnson, managing director of Johnson Associates.
“Banks are looking to extend and improve on the healthy pipeline specifically for [mergers and acquisitions],” he said. “Assuming markets remain elevated, asset management will benefit as product evolution continues.”
Southwest Offering Buyouts to Airport Workers
Southwest Airlines is offering buyouts and extended leaves of absence to airport workers at 18 airports, according to the Associated Press.
The company declined to identify the airports or say how many jobs it hopes to eliminate, but targeted jobs are in ground operations, including customer service agents, baggage handlers and cargo workers. Pilots and flight attendants are not included in the buyout offer, a Southwest spokesperson said.
The Associated Press reported the Dallas-based airline had nearly 75,000 employees as of last year.
Boeing Will Repay Furloughed Staff, Proceed with Job Cuts
As reported by Reuters, Boeing employees furloughed during a seven-week strike by factory workers would be repaid by the company for lost wages, but the company would proceed with plans to cut about 10% of its global workforce.
Boeing furloughed thousands of salaried employees, including its engineers, on a rolling basis after the strike by 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union began in September. The planemaker later canceled the unpaid leave after announcing plans to cut 17,000 jobs.
Many of the salaried workers are due to be notified about the future of their roles this month, according to Reuters. A spokesperson for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which represents Boeing engineers, said earlier it was informed that 60-day notices of job losses would be issued to its members on Nov. 15.
The new moves come after Boeing gave its machinists a 38% pay hike over four years and a $12,000 bonus to end the recent strike.
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