Posts tagged Minimum wage
Simone Barron: Even a Downturn Won’t Stop New York’s Minimum-Wage Hike
October 29, 2026 // Governor Hochul promises a workaround for a provision in state law that mandates freezing the wage amid job losses.
Harvard University graduate workers vote to authorize strike
October 9, 2026 // Harvard University graduate students have voted to authorize a strike after more than a year and a half of contract negotiations have failed to produce an agreement. Thousands of graduate students went on strike for 40 days back in April. According to the union, more than 4,000 workers represented by the Harvard Graduate Students Union-UAW Local 5118 (HGSU) cast ballots on Oct. 6, with 88% voting in favor of strike authorization.
Seattle minimum wage set to increase to $22 in 2027
October 1, 2026 // Seattle's minimum wage is slated for an increase at the beginning of next year, according to an announcement from the city's Office of Labor Standards. On Jan. 1, 2027, the minimum wage for Washington's largest city will take an 84-cent climb, reaching $22.14. Washington state has the highest minimum wage of any other state in the country, which is currently $17.13.
Newsom Celebrates a Higher Minimum Wage as California Jobs Struggle
August 27, 2026 // Escalating minimum wages can also push employers to scuttle plans to expand their businesses because they cannot afford inflated payrolls. In extreme cases, they shut down their companies. Who knows, some might even leave, relocating in states that aren’t hostile to businesses. And that, we remind the governor, is a “different path” indeed.
Opinion: Gavin Newsom’s mind-boggling record of giveaways to unions
August 25, 2026 // Richer government contracts and expanded public employee benefits don’t come from nowhere. They land on taxpayers — the same taxpayers already staring down the nation’s highest gas prices, some of the steepest home insurance increases in the country and a cost of living that keeps pushing people out of the state entirely.
Uber drivers won a 12-year fight to unionize. Robots have already taken the wheel
August 19, 2026 // It’s a real victory for their cause, but in the years since drivers began organizing, the ride-hail industry has entered a new era. Robotaxis, once a bug-faced curiosity(opens in new tab), are shaping up to be an existential threat to human rideshare drivers. Experts disagree on the pace and scale of the labor transition, and policymakers are crafting regulations that may bear down on the autonomous vehicle industry. However, there are some warning signs in early-adopter cities. In San Francisco, Uber saw utilization and hourly earnings decline in 2025, it says.
New Jersey employers face evolving union negotiations
August 11, 2026 // New Jersey’s worker-protection laws add further complexity. “When worker-protection laws are enacted or amended in New Jersey, they add layers to collective bargaining,” Gonzalez said. “There’s no requirement to bargain over a law’s implementation, but where statutes are ambiguous, employers must negotiate the gaps.” She pointed to CREAMMA [the state’s Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act] as an example. “The law prohibits adverse action based on cannabis use outside of work,” she noted. “But unionized employers still need to address how drug testing, safety policies, and fitness-for-duty standards interact with the CBA.” Benefits like paid sick leave and NJ WARN Act severance can also stack on top of contractual obligations. “That dual obligation can catch employers off guard if they are not planning for it at the bargaining table,” she detailed.
Unions Are Coming for Your Uber Driver
August 4, 2026 // The sectoral-bargaining approach made headway in 2022, when California signed the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Act, or FAST, into law. The act was replaced by a compromise agreement before going into full effect. But under the original provisions, it would have established a 10-member Fast Food Council appointed by the governor and state Legislature to set labor rules for the Golden State’s fast-food industry. The FAST Act marked a pivot toward sectoral-bargaining strategies in America, importing the tactic from Europe and Australia. For decades before the FAST Act, the United Auto Workers used tactics like “pattern bargaining” in negotiations with the Big Three automakers.
Newsom celebrates boosting California’s minimum wage to highest rate in the country
August 3, 2026 // California's push for higher wages has also faced opposition from business groups that warn increased labor costs can translate into higher prices, reduced hiring, or fewer hours for workers. The debate has been particularly pronounced around the state's fast-food wage law. Newsom, meanwhile, has increasingly contrasted California's economic policies with those of the president and congressional Republicans as he raises his national political profile.
Commentary: California’s War on Goats Could Worsen the Wildfire Crisis
July 30, 2026 // State lawmakers intervened by passing legislation to allow goat herders to be paid the same alternative minimum as sheep herders until July 1, 2026. Now that the exemption has expired, goat herders must be paid according to traditional overtime rules. Given the 24/7 availability required for herding, this means that Golden State goat herders are now set to be paid $20,000 per month, which works out to $240,000 annually. (For comparison, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's salary currently sits at $245,000). An effort to extend the goat herding exemption beyond 2026 stalled in the state legislature due to opposition from labor unions. Goat-herding businesses have been left scrambling. Western Grazers, a company that deploys roughly 5,000 goats across Northern California, says the new rules push the annual cost of employing each herder above $250,000 once room and board, food, and other expenses are included.