#minimum-wage

#minimum-wage

There's a whole universe of unique pizza toppings to choose from and, depending on what state or city you're in, your pizza could be round, square, or rectangular. Even the pizza base has moved on from flour-yeast-water to using more exotic ingredients like millets and cauliflower. Point being: the insatiable appetite for pizzas lies in its versatility - but that still doesn't explain why a slice of pizza costs so much in the state of Washington.

Increases range from 28 cents in Minnesota to $2 in Hawaii, with an average hike of 67 cents across all 19 states. More than 8.3 million workers will benefit from the increases, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The mean minimum wage in those 19 states will rise to $14.57 in 2026, up from $13.90 this year. Three more states - Alaska, Florida, and Oregon - plus Washington, DC are scheduled to raise their minimum wages later in 2026.

New Jersey is one of nearly two dozen states set to increase its minimum wage in 2026, and the only state in the Delaware Valley that will see a hike. On Jan. 1, 2026, the Garden State's minimum wage will increase to $15.92 per hour - up $0.43 - for most employees. According to the state's Department of Labor and Workforce Development, minimum wage for seasonal employees and small businesses will continue to gradually increase until 2028.

The 19 states hiking wages will impact over 8 million workers, an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found. Women, Black, and Hispanic workers are set to be disproportionately affected by the new increases, per EPI's analysis, and workers in states like Missouri and Nebraska will see their annual wages increase by nearly $1,000 on average.

The big picture: 19 states are raising their wage floors next month, according to the National Employment Law Project. But Washington is one of only six whose hourly minimum wages will top $16. The others are New York ($17 in some areas, $16 statewide); Connecticut ($16.94); California ($16.90); Hawai'i ($16) and Rhode Island ($16). Washington, D.C., meanwhile, will have an hourly wage floor of $17.95.

Pension auto-enrolment and increased minimum wage will add to financial burden of rising food and energy prices, says One Society owner William Monaghan

The Trump administration is one of the most anti-labor administrations in modern U.S. history - it has attempted to decertify the union representation of more than 1 million federal employees. Trump has also fired key members of the National Labor Relations Board, thus rendering it largely non-functional. Moreover his administration has come out against rules requiring disabled workers all be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and it has blocked a Biden-era rule increasing the minimum wage for federal contractors.

We need to listen to what businesses are saying. It's not government ministers that create jobs, it's business that creates jobs. We need to make sure that we set the minimum wage at a good level but we also need to make sure that their other burdens, their business rates, their corporation taxes, all of the things they do - the endless regulation, the employment rights bill: they're just sick and tired of so much happening. Let's lighten that burden.

continues to work with partners around negotiations,

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The thinktank argues that scrapping youth minimum wage tiers could risk "pricing out" young people from entry-level roles at a time when employers are already scaling back hiring due to rising labour costs.

Almost 500 firms have been fined by the government for failing to pay some of their staff the minimum wage. Centrica, which owns British Gas, Holland & Barrett and EG Group are among the 491 employers named by The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) for underpaying their workers over several years. The companies will pay a fine amounting to a combined 10.2 million as a result of breaking the rules.

Immigration Enforcement officers visited the shop on July 26 2023 and found that a male individual was working illegally, without a right to live or work in the UK. In December 2024, under its current owners, offices found a woman working illegally. During her interviews with the Home Office, she told officers that she worked around 40 to 45 hours per week, and was paid 9 per hour, which was below the 11.44 minimum wage.

The business group looking to repeal a $30 per hour minimum wage for Los Angeles hotel and airport workers failed to secure enough signatures to qualify the proposal for the ballot, city officials said Monday. The L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress had been hoping to persuade voters to repeal the wage ordinance approved by the City Council four months ago. The referendum needed about 93,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot but fell short by about 9,000, according to a statement from interim City Clerk Petty Santos.

Speaking on CNBC Tuesday morning, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski was asked how the fast-food chain would be affected by the "no tax on tips" provision of the Big Beautiful Bill, which President Donald Trump signed into law in July. Proponents of the change say that it will lower taxes for a variety of employees, including restaurant servers. At McDonald's, workers don't take tips, Kempczinski said, meaning that the chain's workers won't see a change.

Nearly 1,000 worker over billionaire protests are being planned in all 50 states starting this weekend as part of a Labor Day week of action organized by labor unions and advocacy groups in opposition to the Trump administration's policies. The actions include marches and rallies in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, a Labor Day parade in New York City, rallies in Palmer, Alaska, Freeport, Maine, and a planned protest at the state capitol in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The findings, released in the British Journal of Industrial Relations on Monday, suggest that, since 2004, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) had failed to properly account for the fact that it received more data from larger employers, when it reported its annual survey of hours and earnings (Ashe). It meant the survey gave undue weighting to large businesses, where pay was higher and the difference in pay between men and women was generally smaller.

The ultra-luxurious Santa Monica Proper hotel has been accused of failing to pay its employees minimum wage and, in some cases, paying them less per hour than it charges guests for a bowl of hummus.

That's why it's called the MINIMUM wage. If jobs are difficult or require experience, then they get paid more than that. They make it sound like these employees will suddenly be living in the lap of luxury at $31,200 a year. If your rent is $1,000 (the national average is $1,700), that leaves you with only $19,000 to live on for the whole year before taxes. That doesn't count food, cars, clothes, insurance, phones, etc....

"We understand the Government's objective of fair pay, but you can only have fair pay if you have a job that actually pays," Nicholls said. "Now is not the time to make big jumps in employment costs."

I honestly don't believe that companies and small businesses should be deterred from employing people. The national insurance rise was one that could have been held back, particularly given the state of the economy.

The mayor is expected to veto a Council bill that would expand the restaurant delivery worker minimum wage to grocery delivery workers. This bill aims to achieve the goal championed by the mayor in a 2022 report.