San Francisco Limits Employers’ Applicant Background Checks

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The City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the Ordinance and Mayor Edwin M. Lee signed it into law. The new ordinance (San Francisco Police Code, Article 49) limits the use of criminal history information in pre-employment screening and goes into effect August 13, 2014.

Similar language was added to the City’s Administrative Code to require City contractors and subcontractors to adhere to the same limits when making decisions regarding employment of persons for work on City contracts and subcontracts.

San Francisco is the fifth municipality in the U.S. to restrict criminal background checks during employment screening: Buffalo, Newark, Philadelphia, and Seattle are the other four. Four states also “ban the box”: Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island.

New Restrictions for San Francisco Employers

Employers with 20 or more employees, City contractors, and housing providers are prohibited from requiring job applicants to disclose any conviction history or unresolved arrests until either after the first live interview with the person after a conditional offer of employment. Regardless, there are some details regarding an applicant’s criminal history that remain off limits during all stages of the hiring process. Employers are prohibited from asking applicants about or requiring disclosure of:

  • Arrests not leading to a conviction.
  • Participation in or completion of a diversion or a deferral of judgment program.
  • Convictions that have been dismissed or expunged.
  • Juvenile justice system convictions or adjudications.
  • Convictions more than seven years old.
  • Information pertaining to an offense other than a felony or misdemeanor, such as an infraction.

New Hiring Processes for San Francisco Employers

  • Posting Requirement: The City’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) produced a posting ahead of the August 13, 2014 posting deadline. The new posting details applicant and employee rights under the “ban the box” ordinance. The posting will be available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and all languages spoken by more than 5% of the San Francisco workforce.
  • Employment Solicitations: Employers must state in all job solicitations and employment advertisements that the Employer will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories.
  • Copy to Applicant: Prior to conducting a conviction history inquiry, an Employer must provide the applicant a copy of the notice.

City Posting Coverage

San Francisco is one of 52 cities covered by GovDocs’ Update Program coverage for labor law posting compliance. When you need seamless compliance for the U.S. and Canada, contact us!

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Santa Fe Minimum Wage Third Highest in U.S.

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The City of Santa Fe, New Mexico is raising its minimum wage to $10.66 effective March 1, 2014. The fifteen-cent increase represents a 1.4 percent pay increase for minimum wage workers.

The City established a Living Wage Ordinance in 2003 that ties minimum wage rate changes to the consumer price index (CPI). The term living wage refers to the minimum hourly wage necessary for a person to achieve a higher standard of living.

The new rate puts Santa Fe as the city with the third highest minimum wage in the nation after San Francisco, California ($10.74 per hour) and Seatac, Washington ($15.00 per hour). Efforts are underway to expand the City’s minimum wage rate to the rest of Santa Fe County.

Which Santa Fe Employers Must Pay the Minimum Wage?

All employers with business locations in Santa Fe or who have contracts with the City totaling $30,000 or more are required to pay employees (full time, part time, and temporary) an hourly wage of at least $10.66, with potential annual adjustments based on the CPI, for all hours worked within the city limits.

Affected businesses must display the revised Living Wage Ordinance posting in a prominent location next to it business license or registration on the building premises in both English and Spanish.

Expanded City Posting Coverage by GovDocs

Do you need a streamlined compliance program that gives you coverage at the City, State, and Federal levels?

GovDocs provides city posting coverage for 52 cities in 29 states for our corporate accounts. Find out today how we make posting compliance easy for multi-location companies like yours!

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Expanded Paid Sick Leave Coverage for New York City Workers

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The New York City Council passed a revision to its Earned Sick Time Act to require employers with five or more employees to offer paid sick leave coverage for staff working more than 30 hours per week beginning April 1, 2014. Employers with fewer than five employees must provide unpaid leave.

The new legislation expands a 2013 law that offered paid sick leave to businesses with fifteen or more employees, which will affect an additional 355,000 workers in New York City. The 2013 exemption for the manufacturing industry was removed in the new law.

Eligible employees accrue sick leave at a rate of one hour of paid leave every 30 hours worked. Businesses with fewer than 20 employee earn up to five days per year whereas employees at business with 20 or more employees can earn up to nine days.

The 2014 revision allows employees to use sick leave to care for:

  • Themselves
  • Parents
  • Children
  • Spouses
  • Siblings
  • Grandparents
  • Grandchildren

New York City Posting Requirement

Employers must provide to each employee and must display in a conspicuous place notice of the Earned Sick Time Act or face a civil fine of $50 per employee.

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Newark and Jersey City Pass Paid Sick Leave for Local Workers

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UPDATE JUNE 9: NEWARK POSTING RELEASED.

Only four days after Jersey City’s Earned Sick Time ordinance went into effect, Newark has become one of only seven municipalities in the United States with mandatory paid sick-leave ordinances.

Newark’s ordinance allows full-time and part-time employees to earn up to one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked with a 40-hour per year cap for businesses with 10 or more employees. Businesses with nine or fewer employees are required to offer workers at least 24 hours of sick pay per year.

Whereas Jersey City’s ordinance is in effect as of January 24, 2014, Newark’s ordinance will not take effect until May 29, 2014.

Affected employers in both cities are required to give employees with the ordinance and to display the ordinance in conspicuous areas in the workplace. The poster will be released by the Newark Department of Child and Family Well-Being.

GovDocs Update Program customers with Newark locations will automatically receive the new posting once it is released. UPDATE JUNE 9: NEWARK POSTING RELEASED.

You can learn more about GovDocs City Posting coverage here.

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L.A. Hotel Workers Vie for Top Minimum Wage

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Hotel workers in Los Angeles soon may receive the highest minimum wage in the United States.

Roughly 10,000 employees in 87 hotels across the city would receive at least a minimum wage of $15.37 per hour if the Los Angeles City Council passes a proposal to be presented by council members Mike Bonin, Nury Martinez, and Curren Price.

The City previously has passed living wage ordinances to increase the minimum wage for some workers beyond the State of California’s minimum wage of $8.00 per hour. Employees at Los Angeles International Airport earn at least $15.37 per hour while hotel workers in the Century Corridor district currently earn a minimum of $11.97 per hour. Seactac, Washington recently enacted a $15 per hour minimum wage for some workers.

California’s state minimum wage increases to $9.00 per hour July 1, 2014 before another hike to $10.00 per hour in 2016.

Los Angeles City Council member Mike Bonin discusses a range of issues, including living wage and poverty.

 

Albuquerque Raising 2014 Minimum Wage January 1

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The City of Albuquerque, New Mexico is increasing its 2014 minimum wage to $8.60 effective January 1, 2014 to reflect a cost-of-living adjustment enacted by the City Council in 2012. The City has released the required posting in English and in Spanish.

If an employer provides healthcare or childcare benefits worth more than $2,500, then the employee is eligible for a minimum wage rate of $7.60. The minimum wage rate for tipped employees in Albuquerque will be $5.16.

Albuquerque is one of the 50 cities that the GovDocs Research Department currently monitors for required employee postings. If you are an employee with more than 50 locations, let GovDocs help simplify your posting compliance program at the city, state, and federal levels – and in Canada, too!

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San Francisco Employers: New Required Posting for Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance

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Citing an increased number of women in the workforce and more single-parent households, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance. The Ordinance, which takes effect January 1, 2014, allows workers in businesses with 20 or more employees to request flexible or predictable work arrangements to provide care for family members qualified under the Ordinance.

The Ordinance cited data pointing to a shift in both the workforce and in the family structure as the primary motivation for the Ordinance, citing:

  • In 68 percent of families, married mothers work outside the home.
  • 80 percent of parents in San Francisco living with at least one child under the age of five were employed outside of the home.
  • 15 – 20 percent of households are run by a single parent.
  • Half the mothers under the age of 30 are single.

Who Qualifies?

The Ordinance defines family members as people related to the employee by blood, legal custody, marriage, or domestic partnerships, and can include:

  • Children under the age of eighteen.
  • People with serious health conditions in a family relationship with the employee.
  • Parents (age 65 or older) of the employee.

To be eligible for flexible or predictable work conditions, employees must:

  • Work in San Francisco
  • Be employed for six months or more by the current employer
  • Work at least eight hours per week on a regular basis

Employers have the right to refuse if the accommodation would place undue hardship on the business.

Posting Requirement

The Ordinance mandates that affected employers with 20 or more employees post the San Francisco Family Friendly Workplace in English, Spanish, Chinese, and “any language spoken by at least 5% of the employees at the workplace or job site.” The posting is offered in six languages, with English, Spanish, and Chinese being on one 8.5”x11” page.

GovDocs City Posting Compliance Program

GovDocs’ monitors more than 50 cities across the U.S. for postings required for employers by municipal agencies. As part of our Update Program, we provide employers who have 50 or more locations with ongoing compliance at all levels: city, state, and federal. Whenever a mandatory change occurs or, as in the case of the San Francisco Family Friendly Work Ordinance, if a new posting is released, GovDocs provides your locations in those affected geographies the most current posting automatically.



Learn More By Contacting GovDocs

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Mandatory Labor Law Posting Changes in the U.S. in 2013

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Need to know if your employment locations were affected by mandatory labor law posting changes in 2013? Here’s the list as of December 10, 2013.

The states noted in red on the map experienced mandatory labor law posting changes for all or most employers in 2013, meaning that employers should replace postings at locations within those states. Below is a break-out of the specific postings that changed.

STATE POSTING TYPE OF CHANGE
AK Notice of Workers’ Compensation Insurance Update
AZ Minimum Wage Update
CA California Law Prohibits Workplace Discrimination Update
CO Colorado Minimum Wage Order 30 Update
FL Minimum Wage Update
GA Bill of Rights for the Injured Worker Update
HI Breastfeeding in the Workplace New Posting
KS Workers’ Compensation Update
KY Unemployment Insurance Benefits Update
MA Unemployment Insurance Update
MA Fair Employment Law Update
MD Pregnant & Working New Posting
ME Workers’ Compensation Update
MN Minimum Wage Update
MO Minimum Wage Update
NC Unemployment Insurance Update
ND Wage & Hour Laws Update
NJ New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law Abstract Update
NJ SAFE Act New Posting
NM Notice of Accident New Posting
NY Minimum Wage Information Update
OH Minimum Wage Update
OK Oklahoma Law Prohibits Discrimination in Employment Update
OR Domestic Violence, Harassment, Sexual Assault or Stalking New Posting
OR Oregon Family Leave Act Update
OR Minimum Wage Update
RI Notice to All Employees (UI & DI) Update
RI State Minimum Wage Update
TN Unemployment Insurance Update
TX Employer Notification – Ombudsman Program Update
VT Minimum Wage Update
VT Unemployment Insurance Information Update
WV Wage Payment and Collection Update

Note: the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act also changed and is required for employers with 50 or more employees. Additionally, some states changed/added industry-specific postings, and several cities revised postings.

Please subscribe to our alert service below to stay up to date with all ongoing changes.

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Looking for the earliest compliance dates for your GovDocs posters? Check out our Recent Changes page.
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2014 U.S. Minimum Wage Increases Topped by Seatac, Washington

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Seatac, Washington is home to 26,909 residents, the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, and now the highest minimum wage in the United States.

JUNE 3, 2014 UPDATE – SEATTLE RAISES MINIMUM WAGE TO $15 PER HOUR

With the passage of Proposition 1, Seatac voters created a new minimum wage of $15 per hour for hospitality and transportation workers, effective January 1, 2014. Seatac’s rate surpasses the State of Washington’s minimum wage, which will increase to $9.32 January 1, 2014 and is the highest state minimum wage in the nation.

The Seatac minimum wage, which is indexed to the cost of living and is a living wage ordinance, requires employers in the transportation and hospitality industry to notify employees of rate increases each year but does not stipulate a posting requirement.

Five cities in the U.S. have passed minimum wage ordinances that affect minimum-wage workers in all industries, and their 2014 rates include:

As part of our Update Program for corporate clients with 50 locations or more, GovDocs offers labor law posting compliance research and coverage of 25 cities in the U.S. with more cities being added to the roster in 2014.

November Labor Law Posting Changes

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November was another big month for changes to minimum wage with four states releasing new postings to reflect their new legislated minimum hourly wage rates.

  • Missouri updated its Minimum Wage posting to reflect a minimum wage increase to $7.50/hr. effective January 1, 2014. Order revised poster for Missouri.
  • New Jersey updated its New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law Abstract to to reflect a minimum wage increase to $8.25/hr. effective January 1, 2014. Order revised poster for New Jersey.
  • New York  updated its Minimum Wage Information posting to reflect a minimum wage increase to $8.00/hr. effective December 31, 2013. Order revised poster for New York.
  • Vermont – Vermont has updated its Minimum Wage posting to reflect a minimum wage increase to $8.73/hr. effective January 1, 2014. Order revised poster for Vermont.

In addition to the released revised 2014 Minimum Wage postings for Arizona, Florida, Minnesota*, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and Vermont, GovDocs continues to monitor the following States and Cities for the release of revised minimum wage postings:

States with Pending Minimum Wage Postings

  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Massachusetts
  • Rhode Island

Cities with Pending Minimum Wage Postings

  • San Francisco, California
  • Albuquerque, New Mexico

*Minnesota released mandatory revisions to its Minimum Wage posting but did not increase the state’s minimum wage rate.