Rojgar Job News

Trying to follow both state and federal wage and hour laws isn’t that hard. But it isn’t that easy either. Let’s say you’re a restaurant with a waitstaff.  Like most restaurants nowadays, your customers pay by credit card and you, the employer, have to pay the credit card company a percentage on each sale. You know there are rules regarding deductions of the wages to employees. But what about tips? Can you take out the percentage of fees being charged by the credit card company on the tips? According to the U.S. Department of Labor: Yes. In its fact sheet, the USDOL makes it plain that such actions by an employer do not violate federal law, so long as they are limited to the fees on the tips themselves. Where tips are charged on a credit card and the employer must pay the credit card company a percentage on each sale, the employer may pay the employee the tip, less that percentage. For example, where a credit card company charges an employer 3 percent o...

Earlier this morning (Friday, May 17th), the state Senate approved of a measure that will increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2023. House Bill 5004 (as amended) can be downloaded here. The bill had previously passed the House and now moves to the Governor’s office where he is expected to sign it. There are several key components to the bill that are important for employers. YEARLY INCREASES TO MINIMUM WAGE The bill increases the minimum wage from the current level of $10.10 per hour as follows: $11.00 on October 1, 2019 $12.00 on September 1, 2020 $13.00 on August 1, 2021 $14.00 on July 1, 2022 $15.00 on June 1, 2023 But perhaps even more importantly, beginning January 1, 2024, it indexes future annual minimum wage changes to the federal employment cost index for “wages and salaries for all civilian workers”.  (As of the March 2019 ECI, the compensation costs increased 2.8 percent, by way of example) TRAINING WAGES Starting October 1, 2019, ...

A bill that would have brought the state’s tipping regulations in line with federal regulations was not brought up for a veto override vote earlier this week. I previously covered the subject in prior posts here and here. According to a report in CT Mirror, a “deal” is now being sought that would allow the issue to be brought back before the General Assembly.  However, that may not happen until next year. ( Update on July 29, 2019:  The deal may be brought before a special session late this summer.) As a result, restaurants should continue to ensure that they meet the requirements of the state’s confusing regulations on service vs. non-service work. I covered that in a prior post. This will, no doubt, come as a disappointment to some who had sought to have this bill go under the radar.   Indeed, I even heard grumblings that I shouldn’t have even posted about it — as if talking about something that passed the General Assembly o...

( Post has been updated to note a legislative development.) Running a restaurant is hard. It’s long hours, short tempers and fickle customers. But add in those wage & hour laws? What a headache. And there are lawyers out there who know it. In fact, there are some that rest their business model on seeking out restaurant workers that can be used as representative plaintiffs in class actions.  Moreover, they use the internet — quite legitimately in most cases — to find them. Indeed, in New York, one enterprising firm has put up a whole website entitled WaiterPay.com to educate workers on their rights.   If that weren’t enough, the United States and the Connecticut Department of Labor both have divisions that continue to investigate aggressively these industries for violations. I’ve been following some of the new lawsuits that have been filed against restaurants and have notice a trend — we’re seeing more lawsuits claiming that wa...

A hearing is set for Thursday on draft legislation to “fix” a bill that had been earlier vetoed and that I discussed in a post earlier this week.  CTNewsJunkie.com was first to report on the details earlier Wednesday. The bill comes at an interesting crossroads in restaurant wage/hour law. Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Labor released proposed guidance that would give restaurants far greater latitude in deciding on tip pools and the application of the tip credit. Indeed, the proposed federal regulation would permit a tip credit to be taken  regardless of the percentage of servers’ time that’s spent on so-called “non-service” duties, provided this side work is done during, just before, or a reasonable time after regular “service” time. The proposed Connecticut bill can be found here and would require the CTDOL to write regulations that employers can then, in good faith, rely upon. The bill would also try to limit ...