Paul DeCamp Quoted in “Top Wage and Hour Legislation to Watch in 2023”

A potential compromise on federal minimum wage, paid leave programs starting in three states and a push to eliminate subminimum wage for workers with disabilities are among the top wage and hour legislative issues to watch in 2023, attorneys said.

At the state and local levels, attorneys can expect developments regarding paid leave and salary transparency, as jurisdictions fill gaps where federal lawmakers have been unable to get legislation to the president's desk, legal observers said.

With a split U.S. Congress, much of the legislative activity will happen in states and cities, said Paul DeCamp of management-side firm Epstein Becker Green, who led the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division under former President George W. Bush.

"What we're likely to see in the coming year is little to nothing happening at the federal legislative level," DeCamp said. "The action will now shift, to the extent it hasn't already shifted, to the state and local governments."

Here, Law360 looks at the potential wage and hour legislation on deck in 2023.

Federal Wage Floor Compromise

Congressional Democrats have been unable to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour from $7.25. But as Republicans take control of the House, a narrower increase could be possible, attorneys said.

"Fifteen dollars an hour is dead on arrival in the new Congress," DeCamp said. "There might, however, be a willingness to compromise at a lower number."

That could be closer to $10 an hour, followed by automatic increases for inflation, a proposal Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Tom Cotton of Arkansas made in a 2021 bill that did not advance.

History suggests that raising the federal wage floor is less likely to happen in a split Congress. …

More Schedule Security Expected

The city of Los Angeles in April is set to join the growing list of places with predictive scheduling laws, and lawmakers elsewhere seem likely to introduce similar legislation. The Fair Work Week Law, which the Los Angeles City Council passed in November, requires retailers in the city with 300 or more employees globally to give workers their schedules at least two weeks in advance and provide premium pay for changes.

Similar laws are on the books in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle and the state of Oregon.

Epstein Becker Green's DeCamp said predictive scheduling is among the areas in which "we will see a lot of action in state legislatures and in some localities."