State labor legislation enacted in 2001

Monthly Labor Review

Volumn 125, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 12-30

  Nelson, Richard R ^a  

^a United States Department of Labor   (United States)

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Indexed keywords

EID: 11244256675     PISSN: 00981818     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (2)

1. All of the State legislatures met in regular session in 2001. Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Mississippi, and Missouri did not enact significant legislation in the fields covered by this article. Information about Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands was not received in time to be included in the article, which is based on information received by November 9, 2001.
2. Laws in 25 jurisdictions link changes in the State rate to changes in the minimum wage rate under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Linkage provisions are of several types: a) Laws in 14 jurisdictions do not contain current dollar minimums. Instead, these 14 statutes adopt the FLSA rate by reference, or mandate or authorize matching the FLSA rate by administrative action, thereby conforming to Federal changes on a continuing basis. These 14 jurisdictions are Guam, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Montana (mandates administrative action), Nevada (mandates administrative action), New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah (authorizes, but does not mandate, administrative action) and Virginia, b) Laws in Delaware, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont have their own rates, but replace the State rate with the FLSA minimum if it is higher than the State minimum. c) In Alaska, Connecticut, the District of Columbia and Massachusetts, the rates rise above the Federal rate by a fixed differential on a continuing basis. In Alaska, the rate is automatically set at 50 cents above the FLSA rate. In Connecticut, the State rate automatically increases to 0.5 percent above the FLSA rate if the Federal minimum equals or becomes higher than the State minimum. In the District of Columbia, the rate is set at $1.00 above the FLSA rate. In Massachusetts, the State rate automatically increases to 10 cents above the FLSA rate if the Federal minimum equals or becomes higher than the State minimum. d) Another type of linkage is in California. The California rate matches any higher Federal rate on a continuing basis. In California, the Industrial Welfare Commission sets rates administratively by issuance of industry wage orders. If the Federal rate is scheduled to exceed the State rate, the Commission is directed to adopt, in a public meeting, an order matching the higher rate, without the necessity of convening a wage board.