Pushes to raise minimum wages are popping up across the country – with inflationary increases as high as $19.08 per hour in West Hollywood, CA starting on July 1 and proposals for as much as $30 hourly minimum wages in places like Los Angeles. These efforts are capped by recent high-profile minimum wage battles: New York’s budget battle to raise the state minimum wage to $17 per…

In the California Assembly’s Appropriations Committee earlier this month, legislators heard testimony for and against AB 1228 – a bill entitled the Fast Food Franchisor Responsibility Act – which would target franchised fast food restaurants statewide by making small business owner franchisees and larger corporate brands jointly liable for any labor law violations. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the union behind the push to organize California’s…

This week, Washington, D.C. implemented its first of several tipped minimum wage hikes that will eliminate the city’s tip credit entirely by 2027. The May 1 increase raised the tipped minimum wage from $5.35 per hour to $6 per hour, but will increase again on July 1 to $8 per hour. In anticipation of this new law, the Employment Policies Institute surveyed over 100 restaurant operators in…

Last year, voters submitted over a million signatures to delay the implementation of AB 257, the FAST Recovery Act, when data showed the state’s fast food industry was being unfairly targeted. The bill sought to install an unelected regulatory council to set workplace standards such as hours and wages for the entire industry with limited government oversight. A study by the Employment Policies Institute revealed fast food…

As New York has diminished its tip credit and raised regular and tipped minimum wages over the last several years, the state’s full-service restaurant industry, which employs the majority of tipped workers, has experienced declines in both annual employment and annual establishment growth. New York has the smallest tip credit and highest tipped minimum wage among its closest neighbors, and consequently has seen a higher rate of…

Economists agree that major minimum wage hikes cost employees their jobs – especially for teens. The most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows this happening in real time: states with the largest minimum wages in the nation are also experiencing the highest unemployment rates for workers aged 16 to 19. Analysis of monthly Census Bureau data on teen unemployment and labor force statistics over the…