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 “5 Wage Priorities in the Democrats' 2024 Platform,” by Max Kutner. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
The Democrats over the next four years plan to prioritize raising the federal minimum wage, establishing a national paid leave program, and addressing other wage and hour issues, according to a party platform they approved on opening day of their national convention.
The platform, which party members approved at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, is nearly 100 pages long and lays out plans for the party, including under a new Democratic presidential administration.
Vice President Kamala Harris does not list policy issues on her campaign website, setting hers apart from President Joe Biden's campaign site in 2020 and Hillary Clinton's in 2016. Employment law observers can look to the party platform to see what Harris would prioritize as president, even though the document is written around a continued Biden presidency due to when the party drafted it. …
Increasing the Federal Wage Floor
The Democrats' platform says the party will "work to finally raise the federal minimum wage to at least $15 an hour."
This would be the first increase since 2009, when the national floor raised due to legislation Congress passed in 2007, and it would more than double the current rate of $7.25 an hour.
Democrats sought to bring the national floor to $15 an hour in the last Congress and $17 an hour in the current one. Biden initially pushed for a $15 hourly floor during his presidency and then called for a hike without a number attached.
Republicans in the current Congress, including former President Donald Trump's 2024 running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, put forward an $11-an-hour proposal that would also require immigration verification. …
Paul DeCamp of management-side firm Epstein Becker Green said the $15 level might be closer to a figure around which Republicans could be willing to compromise.
"The fact that the platform is including a $15-an-hour figure and not $17 or $20 or $25 is encouraging from the standpoint of possibly at some point in the foreseeable future finding a measure of overlap with a figure that the Republicans could agree to," he said.
But such a hike would be higher than the approximately 40% increase Congress approved in 2007, said DeCamp, who back then was administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.
"When we're talking about a number like $15 an hour, that is a figure that is more than twice the current minimum wage level, and I think that makes it a more stark difference," he said. …
Boosting Wage Enforcement
The platform also includes a plan to "strengthen enforcement and penalties for safety, wage and other labor and employment violations," and to "continue to aggressively hold companies accountable for violating child labor law."
This comes as enforcement numbers of wage and hour laws overall have been down during the Biden administration, though they are up for addressing violations of child labor laws.
Jessica Looman, the DOL Wage and Hour Division administrator, told Law360 in November that child labor enforcement "has been an area of extreme focus."
However, the Democrats' plan does not appear to specify what the enforcement boost will entail, DeCamp said.
"It's not a surprise to see greater enforcement and penalties for wage violations," he said. "But without more specificity, it's tough to know what they're talking about."
People
Member of the Firm
