Employment expert weighs on what to expect when 2020 starts

With the New Year just weeks away, employers need to start considering upcoming changes to minimum wage law that will become on effective Jan. 1, 2020. Several states, including Illinois, Arizona, Colorado and Florida are seeing minimum wage hikes.

“This is just the beginning of minimum wage increases,” says employment expert Rob Wilson, President of Employco USA, a national employment solutions firm with locations across the country. “For example, starting on Jan. 1, Illinois’s minimum wage will increase from $8.25 to $9.25, but come June, that will increase to $10. The goal is to gradually increase minimum wage from $1 each year, until 2025, when it will hit $15 an hour.”

Wilson also notes that in July, Chicago employers (within the city limits) will need to start providing predictability pay whenever they ask a worker to change their schedule.

“As part of the Chicago “Fair Workweek” Ordinance, employers will now to be required to compensate workers for any schedule changes that happen before the schedule’s posting deadline, which will be at least 10 days ahead of time in July 2020, and 14 days ahead of time starting in July 2022,” says Wilson. “The concept behind this somewhat controversial bill is that workers will have an accurate idea of how many hours they will work each week and how much their paycheck will be.”

With predictability pay, workers will receive extra compensation whenever their employer alters an employee’s schedule, whether or not this leads to less hours for the worker.

“There are so many ins and outs to this this new provision, and it’s going to be a learning curve for employers who aren’t accustomed to these requirements,” says Wilson. “It would be wise for Chicago businesses to become educated about predictability pay and upcoming compensation requirements while there is still time.”

For more on this topic and how companies can prepare for minimum wage increases and more, please contact me.