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Minimum Wage Was Raised In Eight States This Year

More that a million workers making minimum wage will see more money this year, as eight states are raising their minimum hourly rate in 2012.

The Huffington Post reports that these raises are not much, amounting to around 28 to 37 cents an hour, but will mean hundreds of dollars more annually for minimum wage employees.

Washington states will raise thier rates the highest, to $9.04. Arizona, Colorado, Ohio, Oregon, Florida, Montana, and Vermont are the other states raising the minimum hourly rate, with Colorado receiving the lowest boost.

Some states have laws on the books requiring hourly pay to be adjusted every year for rising cost of living and basic necessities. These eight states, plus two others have such laws. Nevada and and Missouri have these laws as well; Nevada raised its hourly rate in the summer of 2011. Missouri does have cost-of-living adjustments, but this year the state will not push their rate above the prevailing $7.25 federal minimum wage.

The Huffington Post points out that “the federal minimum wage is not automatically adjusted for inflation and requires new legislation each time it increases. Thirty-two states currently have minimum wages no higher than the federal rate.” The Post’s article goes on to say that some states are not happy with the rates set by their state government and have “passed local ordinances establishing their own minimum wage.”

On the opposing side, many trade groups and business owners argue that a high minimum wage forces businesses, particularly restaurants, to cut staff and puts many people out of work.

Muslim Worker Sues Sacramento County For Alleged Religious Harassment

Abdur-Rahim Wasi, a Muslim human services specialist for Sacramento County, alleges that he has been subjected to religious and racial discrimination since September 11, 2001, when America was attacked by terrorists.

Wasi claims he has been called “Osama Bin Laden”, “Al-Quaida”, and “Taliban” by co-workers and has been harassed by colleagues saying that he is a member of radical Islamic groups such as the Taliban.

Wasi has said that he believes the terrorist attacks to be “the mass murder of innocent people” and a “criminal act.” He also said that he had told colleagues that he supported going after the perpetrators of the attack.

He claims that his complaints to the county not only went unresolved, but a program manager mocked him by coming to a county Halloween party with an Arab head covering, and that he has also been denied reasonable requests to accommodate the practice of his faith.

The county denied all of Wasi’s allegations in a written reply, and said that they took reasonable steps to put an end to any harassment.

Read article: The Sacramento Bee, by Brad Branan.

Woman’s Discrimination Suit Against U of I Reinstated

The DesMoines Register reports that Teresa Wagner, a conservative, former anti-abortion activist alleges that she was passed over for a job at the University of Iowa’s College of Law because of discrimination from the faculty members and former dean of the law school.

A lower court threw the case out, saying a dean can hire anyone she wishes, but a federal appeals court has now re-instated the case. Steve Fieweger, Wagner’s attorney, said in a statement, “She looks forward to having a jury decide whether her conservative politics prevented her from being employed as a full-time instructor at one of the most liberal law schools in this country.”

The DesMoines Register went on to say, “Wagner said that during the interview process for the U of I job, she mentioned to then-Associate Dean John Carlson that she had gone through a similar interview process at Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Fla., where she had been offered a tenure-track law school teaching position.

Wagner said that Carlson told her to conceal this fact during the interview process, because Ave Maria is viewed as a conservative school, according to court documents.” The article revealed that the “primary vocal opponent to hiring her”, according to the court documents, was Professor Randal Bezanson, who was “a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun during the time that the Roe Vs. Wade decision was written.” Roe vs. Wade was the 1973 case that legalized abortion.

Wagner opposed abortion and had worked with the National Right to Life Committee and for the Family Research Council, which advocates for conservative social views.

Wagner applied four more times for teaching positions after the initial rejection from the school, and was rejected each time.

Representatives of the university cannot discuss any matter involving pending litigation. The court ruled that the lawsuit should proceed in a district court.

Study Shows Female Retail Workers Make Less and Receive Fewer Benefits Than Men

The Huffington Post reports that a new survey conducted by the Retail Action Project and the Murphy Institute of 435 retail workers found that female employees earn an average of $9.77, while their male counterparts earn an average of $10.64.

“Despite laws that prohibit gender discrimination in the work place, the pay gap between men and women remains an issue outside of the retail industry; women earned 77 cents for every dollar that men earned in 2010, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity. The Committee is a coalition of women’s and civil rights organizations, unions and other groups that work to eliminate pay disparities.”

Retail is a female dominated industry, with women making up 64 percent of cashier and stock clerk positions, according to a study in 2008 by the Ford Foundation’s Economic Development Program, but they make up only 33 percent of management positions.

According to the the Retail Action Project survey, the Huffington Post continues, “women retail workers are less likely on a whole to get promoted or receive benefits than men.”

Ford Recalls Sedans Over Risk of Wheels Falling Off

Reuters reported earlier this month that the Ford Motor Company has recalled almost 129,000 of its Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan in the U.S. because of concern that their 17-inch wheels may fall off. As of the end of September, Ford had found six cases in which a wheel had fallen off.

“In some vehicles from the model years 2010 and 2011,” the article said, “the wheel studs may fracture and make the car shake. If ignored, the wheels may fall off a moving car, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a posting on a website.”

“Ford, the No. 2 U.S. automaker, said the issue may stem from wheel mounting pads or rear break discs that have been incorrectly built and cannot support the wheel.”

Job Discrimination Complaints To EEOC Hits All-Time High

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the U.S. Federal Government agency that investigates and enforces employment discrimination laws involving age, race, sex, religion, and disability.

The Huffington Post reported that the EEOC received just under 100,000 employment discrimination complaints during the 2011 fiscal year, “the most logged in a single year in the agency’s 46-year history.” A spokeswoman for the EEOC said that they are not sure and have not conducted any studies as to why the charges have increased, but experts in the field say that the failing economy is to blame.

The executive director of the National Employment Law Project, Christine Owens, made a statement to HuffPost saying, “At times like this, when job loss makes workers especially vulnerable, employers bent on breaking the law are even more likely to do so. The strong report the EEOC has released…underscores how critical it is for America’s workers that we maintain robust laws and regulations to ensure protection of basic labor standards.”

Smokers Penalized With Greater Share of Health Care Costs

Health insurance rates are spinning out of control in this country and obesity and smoking are two of the top risk factors for many of the ailments we face and are associated with higher medical costs. How to get Americans to become more healthy is a big question, but many employers are demanding that employees that smoke or are overweight shoulder a greater share of their health care costs.

In a recent article, the New York Times said that this is a shift toward penalizing employees who lead unhealthy lifestyles rather than rewarding good habits. Policies that impose these financial penalties have doubled in the last two years of the 248 major employers recently surveyed. The benefits consultant that conducted the survey, Towers Watson, said that the practice was expected to double again among companies with at least 1,000 workers.

The article said that The American Cancer Society and American Heart Association fear that some policies may discriminate against unhealthy workers if employers are given too much leeway. Kristen Madison, a law and health sciences professor at Northeastern University in Boston, said, “People are definitely worried that programs will be used to drive away employees or potential employees who are unhealthy.”

“Current regulations allow companies to require workers who fail to meet specific standards to pay up to 20 percent of their insurance costs.” The article continues, “The federal health care law raises that amount to 30 percent in 2014 and, potentially, to as much as half the cost of a policy.”

Recently, Wal-Mart sought higher payments from some smokers, reaching $2,000 more than for non-smokers. This amount is much higher than the surcharges imposed by other employers of smoking workers. The New York Times says that the only way that Wal-Mart’s employees may avoid the surcharges is to certify that their doctor said it would be impossible or medically inadvisable to quit smoking. In contrast, other employers will accept registration in a program to stop smoking as a waiver for the surcharges.

Greg Rossiter, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said, “The increase in premiums in tobacco users is directly related to the fact that tobacco users generally consume about 25 percent more health care services than non-tobacco users.” Other employers, like Indiana University Health, offer rewards for employees that do not smoke and achieve a certain body mass index rather than penalizing those that do smoke or are overweight.

The New York Times article points out that “Some critics say Wal-Mart’s surcharge may have the effect of forcing people to opt for less expensive plans or persuade them to drop coverage all together.”

Religious Discrimination Complaints On The Rise

Religion-based workplace complaints have more than doubled since 1997, according to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) statistic, with nearly 3,800 filed last year.

A recent Cleveland.com article said that many of the EEOC complaints from employees either involve wearing head garb or that companies refuse to accommodate requests for religious days off. The enforcement manager for the Cleveland EEOC field office, Cynthia Stankiewicz, said that employers aren’t always aware of employees’ religious rights and that they don’t always attempt to accommodate requests when they don’t pose a hardship on the business. She cited a case in the article where an employee at a fast-food restaurant was fired after only a day on the job because of claims that his head scarf was a fire hazard.

The EEOC says that the law requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for employees’ “sincerely held” religious beliefs so long as accommodating them would not cause the employer undue hardships. “In most cases,” Ms. Stankiewicz said, “employers don’t have a good valid job-related reason for religious discrimination. It’s often based on fears, myths and stereotypes.”

The article continued, saying that Stankiewicz also noted that an employer can turn down a request for a religious day off if it means training someone else at a substantial cost to the employer. Further, “employers are not required to pay premium or overtime costs in order to accommodate religious needs.”

The EEOC only steps in when an employer does not make reasonable allowances that do not put them in hardship, and only after first trying to reach a pre-litigation settlement with the employer.

Veterans With Disabilities Need Multi-Pronged Approach For Employment, EEOC is Told

An Equal Employment Opportunity Commission press release said that Veterans with disabilities not only have unique needs with transitioning into civilian employment, but they also may be unaware that they are protected by the American’s With Disabilities Act. Employment plays an important role in a Veteran’s recovery from injury and easing their way into civilian life, the release said.

In a public meeting that included representatives from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA), Department of Labor (DOL), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Defense (DOD), and private sector stakeholders, the EEOC examined “effective ways to remove barriers to employment for veterans with disabilities.”

Heather Ansley of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities pointed out that stereotypical views of mental health issues like post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) has made employers hesitant to hire veterans, leading to widespread discrimination. The DOL enforces the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act, a law that prohibits any discrimination against former military service members.

The press release said “the EEOC works to combat these myths and stereotypes about veterans with disabilities…and enforces the federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.”

Over 10,000 Sign Petition Asking Target To Open At 5AM Instead of Midnight On Black Friday

Thanksgiving is the day we take to give thanks for what we have, even if we are much less fortunate than others. It is a day that greed is far from our hearts, materialism is far from our minds and family and friends gather to share in the wealth of togetherness and love.

The day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, is a different story. The biggest shopping day of the year is characterized by crowded stores, long lines and frenzied buying. And, as the Huffington Post reports, the lines between the two days are beginning to blur as many stores are planning to open at midnight on Thanksgiving Day.

A backlash is occurring, however, as employees are upset over having to give up family time on Thanksgiving to go into work and consumers are angry over corporate greed.

An Omaha, Nebraska Target employee, Anthony Hardwick, has started a petition on Change.org asking Target to open at 5 a.m. rather than at midnight. In a statement, Hardwick said that “with the midnight opening, employees like myself will have to leave for work right in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner.” According to The Huffington Post, more than 100,000 people have signed the petition.

“Target issued a statement…responding to the petition,” the report said, “alleging that Hardwick was never scheduled to work on Thanksgiving.” Target also said in the statement that holiday pay is being offered to all hourly employees who work on Thanksgiving Day.