labor lawAdivision of labor law center

For the first time, a state minimum wage will be reduced.

On January 1, 2010 the Colorado minimum wage will be reduced by 4 cents, from $7.28 per hour to $7.24 per hour. However, most Colorado employers will be required to pay $7.25 per hour under the federal minimum wage, the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The minimum wage for tipped employees will decrease from $4.26 per hour to $4.22 per hour according to the Colorado Division of Labor & Employment. If the employee does not average $3.02 per hour over the payroll week, the employer must pay the difference.

The Colorado minimum wage is adjusted annually for inflation. Unlike most states, however, when the cost of living goes down – as it has in the past year – the Colorado minimum wage can be reduced. While a variety of states including Washington, Oregon and Florida increase the minimum wage annually, there is no provision for the automatic reduction of minimum wage in most states.

Colorado employers need to update their state minimum wage posters immediately.

Although the Colorado minimum wage reduction is only 4 cents, it is far better than the annual increases of 20 cents or more in recent years. In 2009, for example, the Colorado minimum wage increased (more…)

The California Labor Agency recently issued an opinion allowing employers to reduce an exempt employee’s salary and hours worked, at the same time, without endangering the worker’s status as a salaried exempt employee.

In the example used, the state labor agency permitted an employer faced with economic difficulties to reduce the work schedule of exempt employees from five days to four days. The state DLSE or Department of Labor Standards Enforcement ruled in a recent opinion letter that simultaneously reducing the employee’s salary by 20%  “did not violate the ‘salary basis’ for the workers’ overtime exemption under the state Labor code and wage orders” as long as the employer’s action is a temporary measure.

This is a radical change, since the DLSE took the opposite position in 2002. In an opinion letter issued in that year, the California agency ruled that the employer could reduce an employee’s salary. However, if the employee’s work hours were also reduced, that change the employee from exempt to non-exempt status.

This is a primary concern for California employers, since non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime under state law. California has the strictest (more…)

Effective February 1, 2009 New York employers must give workers more notice of layoffs.

The New York State Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification or WARN Act requires employers to provide 90 days notice to employees who will be laid off. The law applies to employers who are closing a plant, planning a mass layoff or a plant relocation that occurs on or after February 1, 2009. It does not apply to individual layoffs.

New York employers who are planning mass layoffs shortly after February 1, 2009 must act now to provide notice before the new law takes effect. The new law, Chapter 475, Section 25-A  of the New York code,  was passed by the state legislature on August 5, 2008.

According to the New York Department of Labor, the state WARN Act applies to any employer with 50 or more worker, who lays off at least 25 employees.

The law applies to (more…)