While President Biden’s vaccine mandate wends its way through the courts, another of the administration’s early initiatives impacting federal contractors is set to go into effect early next year.

On November 22, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) published its Final Rule implementing Executive Order 14026, which raises the minimum wage requirement for anyone working “on or in connection with” a covered federal contract from $10.95 to $15.00 per hour. The new minimum will also increase annually, starting January 1, 2023, to an amount determined by the Secretary of Labor based on inflation. The published rule explains that employees perform “on” a contract if they directly perform the specific services called for by the contract and perform “in connection with” a contract if their work activities are otherwise necessary to the performance of the contract. Employees performing “in connection with” covered contracts are excluded from coverage if they spend less than 20% of their work hours in a particular workweek doing covered work.
Continue Reading Minimum Wage Increases to $15 for Federal Contractors Beginning January 30, 2022

Did you know that July 29 was National Intern Day? Well, Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) does and, in recognition, L&I recently released a bulletin reminding employers that sometimes a so-called intern is actually just another employee.
Continue Reading No Such Thing as a Paid Intern, Says Washington State Department of Labor & Industries

In response to last year’s groundbreaking decision by the Washington State Supreme Court in Martinez-Cuevas v. DeRuyter Bros. Dairy, Inc., the state legislature recently passed Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5172, amending the state’s Minimum Wage Act as it relates to agricultural workers and adopting a phased approach for imposing overtime requirements on agricultural employers.