Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Law360 Employment Authority, in “2 Major California Wage Proposals Will Be Missing from Ballots,” by Max Kutner. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
When California voters head to the polls in November, two major wage and hour proposals won't appear on ballots.
Golden State voters will have to wait until at least 2024 to weigh in on the two ballot measures. One proposes to raise the statewide minimum wage to $18 an hour and the other seeks to eliminate the state's Private Attorneys General Act, which enables workers to sue on behalf of themselves, the state and other workers for labor law violations. ...
Here, Law360 looks at the delayed measures.
Waiting On An $18 Minimum Wage …
California still could be the first state to get to $18 an hour. In June, Hawaii became the first state to approve such a rate, but it does not go into effect there until 2028.
California's measure could likely pass. Since the Fair Labor Standards Act set a federal wage floor in 1938, there have been 30 statewide minimum wage ballot measures, and just three of them failed.
But voters often don't recognize the drawbacks of such measures, said Paul DeCamp of management-side firm Epstein Becker Green.
"It's an issue that has a lot of surface appeal," DeCamp said. "A lot of voters don't immediately see the economic downside to doing that," such as "making it more difficult for employers to employ people at the bottom rung of the economic ladder."
People
Member of the Firm
