Alaska’s minimum wage will increase to $11.73 per hour, effective January 1, 2024, from the current minimum wage of $10.85 per hour. This represents an increase of $0.88, or approximately 8.1%. Minimum salaries for certain exempt employees will also rise on January 1, 2024. These employees are required to maintain a salary equivalent to two times the minimum wage for the first 40 hours they work. Consequently, the minimum salary for such workers will increase to $938.40 per week, or $48,796.80 per year, from the current minimum of $868.00 per week, or $45,136.00 per year.

As 2024 approaches, Alaska employers should be prepared to address this update as of January 1, 2024. 

Multiple new laws will take effect in Washington state beginning January 2024, bringing changes to the state’s minimum wage laws and adding requirements under the state’s Paid Sick Leave Law.

The state minimum wage will increase to $16.28 per hour, a 3.4% increase over last year’s minimum wage, and more than double the federal minimum wage, which continues to sit at $7.25. The new minimum wage rate will apply to workers who are 16 years old and older. Employees who are 14 or 15 years old may be paid $13.84 per hour.

Read the full Update here.

Colorado’s state minimum wage will increase to $14.42 per hour beginning January 1, 2024. However, Colorado employers should be aware that municipalities within Colorado will also be increasing their minimum wage above the state’s minimum wage. If a municipality provides a higher minimum wage rate than the state, the employer must pay the higher rate.

The following localities will be increasing their minimum wage.

The National Labor Relations Board and Occupational Safety and Health Administration executed a Memorandum of Understanding on October 31, 2023, that will help facilitate interagency coordination and cooperation. The goal of this partnership is to strengthen health and safety protections for workers.

The MOU sets forth a process for information sharing, training, and outreach between the NLRB and OSHA, much like other MOUs into which the NLRB has entered with other agencies, including the Department of Law’s Wage and Hour Division and the Office of Labor Management Standards.

Read the full Update here.

The city of Chicago approved the Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance on November 9, 2023, providing all employees working in the city with up to five annual days of paid leave that can be used for any purpose and five annual days of paid sick leave that can be used for specified purposes.
The ordinance, which takes effect on December 31, 2023, significantly expands paid leave requirements for Chicago employers and includes some of the harshest penalties in the country for violations of paid leave provisions.

Read the full Update here.

The Arizona Court of Appeals recently held in Papias v. Parker Fasteners LLC that a discharged employee could proceed with his retaliation claim against his former employer. The employee alleged that he had been terminated when he attempted to use earned paid sick time under Arizona’s Fair Wage and Healthy Family Act.

Read the full Update here.

Recently, in Matthews v. City of Tempe, 2023 WL 6880652, the Arizona Federal District Court considered whether an employer discriminated against a former employee when it denied him an opportunity to telecommute on certain days but allowed female employees to take advantage of remote work.

Read the full Update here.

Connecticut Paid Sick and Safe Leave was expanded to add two additional permitted uses, effective October 1, 2023. Connecticut Paid Sick and Safe Leave originally went into effect in 2012. The law allows covered employees to accrue one hour of paid sick and safe leave for every 40 hours worked and accrue up to 40 hours per year. Covered employees may also carry over up to 40 hours of paid sick and safe leave from one year to the next, subject to a usage cap of 40 hours. However, unlike other mandatory paid sick and safe leave laws, the Connecticut law has narrow application.

Read the full Update here.