State labor legislation enacted in 1986

Monthly Labor Review, Jan, 1987 by Richard R. Nelson

State labor legislation enacted in 1986 Many significant laws covering a wide variety of employment standards subjects were enacted in 1986, despite the fact that some legislatures did not meet in regular session and others met only in special or abbreviated sessions. Laws were enacted in many traditional labor fields, including minimum wage protection, collection of unpaid wages, child labor, collective bargaining, and employment discrimination. Important legislation was also adopted involving whistleblower protection, prohibitions on the employment of illegal aliens, asbestos abatement, and on the emerging issues of regulation of workplace smoking and on testing employees for drugs and AIDS.

New legislation in 1986 increased hourly minimum wage rates above the $3.35 per hour Federal standard (which became effective in 1981) in three New England States--Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. In addition, the District of Columbia raised the minimum hourly wage of beauty culture occupations from $3.75 to $4.50 and the rate applicable to building service occupations from $3.70 to $4.75; Puerto Rico raised minimum rates to varying levels in three industries; and the minimum rate was increased to $3.35 an hour in Kentucky and West Virginia. Wage rates were raised in Maine, Montana, and Vermont as the result of increases provided for by previous enactments.

As of January 1, 1987, 19 jurisdictions had minimum wage rates equal to the Federal standard for some or all occupations, and 8 jurisdictions (Alaska, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) exceeded this level.

In other wage actions, New Hampshire added an overtime pay standard to the minimum wage law, requiring payment of time-and-one half the regular rate after 40 hours per week for employment other than that covered by the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and several jurisdictions enacted legislation conforming public employee overtime pay and compensatory time-off provisions to the revised requirements of the Act; Indiana repealed its tip credit allowance, the allowance was reduced in Maine, and employers in Delaware were prohibited from taking any part of an employee's tips. New York administratively changed its overtime standard from time-and-one-half the State minimum wage rate to time-and-one-half the employee's regular rate, and eliminated all regulatory provisions for various subminimum rates.

In the courts, separate decisions in Hawaii and New York held that the Federal Motor Carrier Act, which authorizes the Interstate Commerce Commission to establish requirements with respect to maximum hours of service for employees of interstate carriers, does not preempt State regulation of overtime wages for these workers.

South Carolina enacted a new comprehensive wage payment law applicable to public and private sector employers, and coverage of the Kansas wage payment and collection law was extended to public employers. The labor departments in Delaware and Wisconsin were authorized to collect unpaid wages for all underpaid employees of an employer instead of only for those who have filed wage claims. Wisconsin also passed a law to bar from State public works contracts, for 3 years, contractors who have failed to pay required prevailing wage or overtime rates.

In the area of comparable worth, Hawaii authorized a study of work performed by State and county civil service employees in certain occupations to determine if pay inequity exists among specific job classes dominated by one sex.

Again this year, as in the last several years, a number of bills were introduced to repeal or modify State prevailing wage laws, but no significant legislation was enacted.

Child labor law revisions were enacted in 10 States. The more significant of these were enacted in Florida and Arizona. Florida imposed limits on permissible daily and weekly hours of 16- and 17-year-old students during the school year, reduced permissible weekly hours for minors under age 16 during the school year (these restrictions do not apply during holiday and summer vacations), and revised nightwork hours for minors 17 and under. Amendments to the Arizona law permitted the labor department to grant individual variances from the law, added detailed definitions of prohibited occupations similar to those under Federal law, and extended the permissible work hours by those under age 16 on nights preceding nonschool days. The latest that minors under age 16 may work in Minnesota was reduced. In other actions, proof-of-age certificates in Connecticut will no longer be required for persons over age 18 employed in hazardous occupations; in Iowa, the labor commissioner was given authority to adopt rules on employment of minors; and in Tennessee, the labor department's authority to issue rules and regulations was expanded beyond the determination of hazardous occupations for minors, and new recordkeeping responsibilities were added.