But on niche websites devoted to energy production and energy markets, the picture of how California is responding to its mandates is more muddled. A recent free report from SNL, the McGraw-Hill financial publication that typically charges for the proprietary information it provides to shareholders and potential investors, puts California’s progress in a different light:
Under the proposed “ban the box” or “fair chance” policy, employers would not be allowed to ask an applicant about his or her criminal history – or run a background check – until they have been given a conditional offer of employment.
Senate Bill 863, backed by employers and labor unions, affected many specific aspects of the system but was aimed largely at reducing medical costs and redirecting savings into cash benefit increases for disabled workers. . . The medical care portions of the bill appear to be having the desired effect, a new study by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau concludes.
A preliminary state proposal to drastically reduce a 25-year-old safe harbor standard for lead in consumer products has no scientific basis and is likely to lead to unnecessary warnings, the California Chamber of Commerce and an 82-member coalition is arguing.
More than a quarter of U.S. workers are now employed in a field licensed at the state level, according to a recent White House study. And regulators continue to add to the roster of more than 1,100 occupations that require a license to operate in at least one state.
The Obama administration’s belief that it can mandate its way to economic growth—and its imposition of new regulatory costs that eclipse any in recent history—is holding back job creation and America’s national recovery. The overtime mandate is more of the same.
That’s what seems to have happened this week around an issue that’s crucial to the growth of new businesses like Uber and Taskrabbit: How to provide benefits to workers who use those platforms to find clients. On Tuesday, a letter surfaced calling for a new social safety net regime that could allow people to move easily from gig to gig without losing the benefits and protections usually contained within the traditional employment relationship. Right now, companies say, it’s difficult for them to offer employment-like perks without running the risk of getting hit with lawsuits.
A report researched and released Thursday by Environmental Entrepreneurs, or E2, called Utah “a hive of clean energy activity,” ranking it No. 1 among states that created clean energy jobs in this year’s third quarter.
When Sacramento voters go to the polls next year, they may find four competing minimum-wage proposals to choose from. All of them would raise the wage to an hourly $15 before tying it to inflation.
The pact could have a major effect on California, home to the nation’s busiest ports and a major exporter of electronics, farm products, machinery and other goods and services to Pacific Rim countries.
New technologies and business models are fundamentally changing the economic landscape across the country, adding value to consumers’ lives and bringing new opportunities for workers. These changes are also raising questions about the changing nature of work in America for businesses, workers, labor organizations, governments, and consumers alike. As our country has at prior moments of workplace change, we must find a path forward that encourages innovation, embraces new models, creates certainty for workers, business, and government and ensures that workers and their families can lead sustainable lives and realize their dreams.
The majority of the yearly $4 billion spent each year will be used on upgrading transmission systems. Roughly $240 million a year, or about 6%, will go toward new power generation, he said.
The proposed initiative, supported by the Service Employees International Union’s state council, would boost the base wage to $15 per hour by 2020, and mandate six paid sick days a year. The current $9-an-hour minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $10 on Jan. 1.
China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases from coal, has been burning up to 17 percent more coal a year than the government previously disclosed, according to newly released data. The finding could complicate the already difficult efforts to limit global warming.
The challenge for employers is not only the cost of higher wages or paid sick time. Multistate employers compelled to monitor new developments in thousands of cities instead of 50 states find the task overwhelming. Employers also have to track where each of their employees lives, or moves to, and works. Complying with the three-tiered patchwork of federal, state and local regulation means more opportunity for contradiction, as some laws’ requirements are the opposite of other laws. Changing a national payroll system to comply with the paid sick-leave ordinance in Passaic, N.J., might violate the law in San Francisco.