Workers' Compensation: Public policy

Showing posts with label Public policy. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Court Upholds Mandatory Vaccination or Termination

A Federal court has dismissed an action brought by 117 employees against Houston Methodist hospital’s policy requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by June 7, 2021, or be terminated.

Public Policy and Multi-Jurisdictional Claims

A NJ appellate court has ruled that public policy favors litigation in the State of New Jersey were there exists a dispute over multi-jurisdictional choice of law issues governing workers’ compensation insurance coverage in NJ.

NJ Supreme Voids Agreements Not To Sue Third-Parties

In a landmark decision, the NJ Supreme Court has ruled that agreements between employers and employees not to file a lawsuit against an employer's customers are unenforceable. The Court held that such disclaimers are against public policy.

The Internet Redefines Jurisdiction

The Internet has resulted in widespread changes in workers’ compensation including what defines a contract of employment. In determining the applicable law governing a claim, the NJ Appellate Division, in a unanimous reported decision, went back to basics in reaching the conclusion that NJ had jurisdiction.

The Minimum Wage Ain’t What It Used to Be

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from mobile.nytimes.com

David Neumark is professor of economics and director of the Center for Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine.
Proponents of raising the minimum wage often point out that the real minimum wage is lower now than it was decades ago. But the federal policy aimed at low-wage work and low-income families has shifted — wisely — away from reliance on the minimum wage and toward a generous earned-income tax credit, which is better focused on poor families. There is nothing wrong with reducing our reliance on a less effective policy when we have adopted a more effective one. In fact, we should hope that research on public policy leads to exactly this kind of outcome.

The decline in the real value of the minimum wage is indisputable. As shown in the chart below, the real value of the federal minimum declined sharply over the 1980s, and then further in the mid-2000s, before partly recovering with the fairly steep increases in the minimum wage in 2007-9. But despite those increases and low inflation in recent years, it still remains well below its real value in the 1970s.
There has been a significant policy shift, however, in how to guarantee a minimally acceptable income to families with low-wage workers. In particular, the earned-income tax credit was instituted in 1976, and its generosity has since been expanded considerably.

Through the tax system, the earned-income tax credit pays benefits to families with low income and employed workers. For...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]