By Oregon Farm Bureau,
The Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) recently released draft rules to implement the new minimum wage law passed in Feb. 2016. We need your help to make sure the voice of small businesses and farmers is represented during the public comment period!
BOLI’s draft rules [5] are a significant overreach! Even though legislators confirmed that an employers’ location is based on where the employee reports to work, the draft rules ignore legislative intent. Instead, BOLI proposes a complicated regulatory system–requiring employers to track the amount of time EACH employee spends in higher wage tiers and pay different wages across wage tiers. The draft rules:
• Establish an arbitrary threshold of 4 hrs/wk to trigger a higher wage and burdensome paperwork requirements;
• Mandate that family businesses track and report multiple wages on employees’ pay stubs; and
• Require extensive paperwork documenting a worker’s location unless business pays worker at the highest tier rate (even if most work is performed in lower tier)
The draft rules are an unfortunate “gotcha” for employers who are still struggling to comply with other wage and hour mandates recently passed by the Oregon legislature.
Oregon Farm Bureau asks that you provide comments to BOLI and urge the agency align the definition of “employer location” with FMLA rules and legislative intent! EVERY comment counts. Written comments are due to [email protected] by May 23 at 5:00 PM.