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PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #121 AUGUSTA, ME
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MAINE INGREDIENT I
45 Melville St. • Augusta, ME 04330
The
October / November 2O15
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Local Minimum Wage Initiatives Remain on Front Burner As Prospect of Statewide Wage Referendum Heats Up
MAINE INGREDIENT I
The
HOT TIP!
Exempt vs Non-Exempt Employees On July 6, 2015, the US Department of Labor (DOL) issued PROPOSED new rules updating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) overtime exemptions. The proposed rules would go into effect between July 2016 and January 2017.
Now is the time to examine your employee classifications to determine if your exempt employees are properly categorized. Exempt employees must pass three tests: 1. Paid salary 2. Salary is more than $970/week ($50,440 annually – the level established by the new rule) 3. Primary duties must be consistent with executive, professional or administrative positions as defined by the US DOL. Employees who do not meet all three of these requirements must be treated as hourly, or non-exempt salaried employees, and be paid for each hour worked and at a rate of one and one-half times the normal hourly rate for all hours worked over 40 hours in a given work week. Most kitchen and front-of-the-house staff do not qualify as exempt based on their job requirements.
Local initiatives have been taking a tremendous amount of time and effort this past summer. Two minimum wage proposals in Portland and one in Bangor have kept association staff very busy. The Portland City Council met on July 6 to pass a minimum wage ordinance that will raise the minimum wage to $10.10 on January 1, 2016, $10.68 on January 1, 2017 and then adjust future increases to the Consumer Price Index (CPI.) There was a sizable issue with the tip credit, as the council believed it was freezing the tipped wage at $3.75, but froze the tip credit at $3.75 instead, thereby necessitating a reconsideration of the ordinance to make that fix. The Council addressed this flawed language at their September 9 meeting by passing the ordinance again with new language created by Glenn Israel from the law offices of Bernstein Shur, that freezes the tipped wage at $3.75. They also sent the Portland Green Party $15 referendum question to the voters in the November election. Their only other option would have been to enact the question, but most of the councilors believe the $15 minimum wage to be too much. Both the Maine Innkeepers Association (MEIA) and the Maine Restaurant Association (MERA) are working with the Portland Regional Chamber and the Retail Association of Maine and some national associations to create a coalition to help defeat this referendum question. Emails to Portland restaurateurs and hoteliers are going out on a daily basis at press time. Election Day is November 3 and our as-
sociations are giving everything we have to defeat this precedent setting referendum question. Television commercials will run the weeks of October 19 and 26. In Bangor, Councilor Joseph Baldacci brother of former Maine Governor John Baldacci - had introduced a proposed ordinance to create a minimum wage in the City of Bangor, which would be $8.25 on January 1, 2016, $9.00 on January 1 of the following year and ending with an increase to $9.75 in 2018. This ordinance would also be tied to CPI, thereafter. A vote by the Council on this ordinance needs to be executed by November 23. At a recent Business and Economic Development Committee meeting, a new proposal was put forth to try to gain the necessary votes for passage. The “compromise” proposal would have the Council endorse the petition gathering effort of the Maine People’s Alliance for the $12 statewide referendum, which they did vote for and then create a trigger to enact the same statute created for the referendum as ordinance in Bangor, if the statewide referendum were to fail. They did not vote for this part and are looking to schedule a City Council workshop to discuss these two competing measures. MEIA and MERA have been working hard to rally hoteliers and restaurateurs from both cities to continue to petition the councils to take business interests into consideration when reviewing these onerous ordinances. The Maine Peoples’ Alliance is currently
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What’s In a Name? A Practical Lesson On Name Selection Whenever a business owner starts a new business or launches a new product, the question of how the new endeavor should be named becomes important on both business and personal levels. The decision is usually made in favor of a “catchy” word or phrase that draws a strong association with the underlying product or service. As so often happens, the owner will conduct some sort of investigation to determine to his satisfaction that the newly chosen name has not been already claimed by his competitors. If based on his search the name appears available, the owner will usually invest time and money in a business sign, product labels, domain name, and other online and print advertisement opportunities, seeking to build reputation and good will under the new name, which he now sees as a valuable brand. If everything goes well, the more time goes
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IN THIS ISSUE:
Chairman’s Message
2
Upcoming Events
2
President’s Report
3
Award Nominations
4
ServSafe Class Schedule
9
Golf Tournament Review
10