Minimum Wage Increase
http://oregoncitizenslobby.org/government-operation/sb-1532-minimum-wage-increase/RULE MAKING ALERT
Legislative Alert from Rep. Greg Barreto
Dear friends, business owners and community stakeholders,
The Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) recently released "proposed draft rules" to implement SB 1532 (the minimum wage increases passed in February 2016). The public comment period is now open. The voice of business needs to be represented, so your help is needed!
I ask that you provide comments to BOLI and urge the agency to align the definition of "employer location" with Family Medical Leave Act rule definitions, and especially with legislative intent. (Background information provided below).
Think through how you would implement the proposed rules and then provide details about the burden and unintended consequences those rules would create. In addition to tracking the hours that an employee may spend in a higher-wage tier, in addition to other administrative headaches, these rules would likely create new tensions between employees and managers/owners as they would argue about where an employee was and how long he or she was there.
Take action now! Written comments are due by Monday, May 23, 2016 at 5:00 p.m., and may be emailed to Paloma Sparks, legislative director at BOLI, at:paloma.sparks@state.or.us.
For your assistance, please find: (1) a sample template for your comments to BOLIhttp://files.ctctcdn.com/482c53af201/892745fc-1fcc-47a4-9e70-7544aea03045.pdf
and (2) the letter OSCC signed to legislators highlighting the problem with BOLI's proposed rules. http://files.ctctcdn.com/482c53af201/c8fca785-bdf1-4b30-bde2-790e660e042f.pdf
Please copy all written comments to: rep.gregbarreto@state.or.us
Click here to view BOLI's proposed draft rules.https://www.oregon.gov/boli/Legal/docs/839-020_proposed_rules.pdf
Background:
According to the Association of Oregon Industries (AOI) findings, "BOLI's draft rules are a significant overreach. Even though legislators confirmed that an employers' location is determined based on where the employee reports to work, the draft rules ignore legislative intent. Instead, BOLI proposes a confusing regulatory system – requiring employers to track the amount of time EACH employee spends in higher wage tiers and pay different wages based on where employees temporarily work.
The draft rules: •Establish an arbitrary threshold of 4 hours per week to trigger a higher wage and burdensome paperwork requirements.
•Mandate that businesses track and report multiple wages on employees' pay stubs.
•Require extensive paperwork documenting a worker's location unless business pays worker at the highest tier rate for all work (even if most work is done in lower tier).