After a fiercely contentious, chaos-inducing, and at times, dystopian run up to the 2020 presidential election, it now appears clear that Joe Biden will be sworn in as our 46th president on Jan. 20, 2021. A new administration will be poised to implement sweeping policy changes, including greater protections for workers, unions and independent contractors. In this column, we will take a look at what the employment law world can expect from a Biden/Harris administration. Details on the Biden/Harris plan can be found at https://joebiden.com/empowerworkers/#.

Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage to $15

One of the major issues that Biden ran on, in terms of protecting workers, was to increase the federal minimum wage to $15. While some states have increased the minimum wage in their respective states (Pennsylvania has not), many farmworkers who grow our food and domestic workers who care for the aging and sick and those with disabilities are not even earning the minimum wage.  Moreover, Biden supports eliminating the tipped minimum wage. Tipped workers, who are primarily women, are being left behind. The federal tipped minimum wage has not budged from just $2.13 an hour in 25 years. Federal law and all but seven states allow employers to pay a lower tipped minimum wage to workers who earn tips.

Protecting And Strengthening Labor Unions