State Chamber Update
The Delaware General Assembly will meet just a few more days this month before adjourning until January. Two very important measures are before them and you need to weigh-in now:
- Recreational Marijuana (HB 110): Provisions are muddy at best on how you can run your company drug policy. No “on the spot” test is available to measure impairment, so when an accident occurs, you have little proof to protect fellow employees and the business.
- Minimum Wage: Even if you do not pay your employees $15.00 per hour, once that threshold is achieved, you will undoubtedly have to push your wages up to keep some distance between new hires in the market and your employees. Passage of this will almost certainly mean that teen unemployment and first-time employees will go without jobs. Why would you hire a 16-year-old at $15.00 when you could hire an adult with an employment track record, ready transportation and more? A $15.00 per hour wage grosses to $31,200 per year. If you pay any employee anything close to that amount and that becomes the new baseline for any hire, you can be sure your $38,000 and $45,000 employees, and others, will ask for more compensation in recognition of their work history, experience, loyalty and more.
Join us tomorrow, June 11th at 9:30 a.m.
for a members only (no press, please) teletown hall conference call. The topic will be the upcoming committee vote on minimum wage and how to effectively engage. This legislation will have a large, negative impact on employers across Delaware, and legislators need to hear from you.
Dial-In: 605-313-5646
Access Code: 706968
