COLONIE, N.Y. — According to www.spectrumlocalnews.com, the New York State Department of Labor is considering a proposal that is designed to provide employees a fairer wage by making employers pay employees an extra two hours of pay if they’re called in to work a shift with less than 14 days’ notice.
However, the article continued, Tom Hoffman Jr., who employs over 700 workers at his family’s 21 Hoffman Car Wash locations, said that such a ‘call-in-pay’ law would be impossible to comply with in the carwash industry, since schedules for the staff are constantly shifting.
“Most of our employees, this is their first job. These are kids in high school and college,” Hoffman said. “Our scheduling and staffing levels fluctuate primarily because of the unpredictable weather in the Northeast. If we have snow storms coming in, we may have to reduce staffing, and then when we have a beautiful day like today, we have to call in people.”
“It is just going to cost small businesses around the state an enormous amount of money, and we are going to have to pass those costs along to our customers,” Hoffman added.
“That is where this loses its effectiveness, loses its practicality,” Todd Shimkus, president of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, said.
Shimkus noted that he has already received a multitude of calls from concerned members, the article stated.
While there are certain exemptions for employees earning 10 times the minimum wage over the course of a week and those who volunteer to cover the shift of a co-worker who calls out for whatever reason, Hoffman still expects that this law would add over a million dollars to his annual labor costs, the article reported.
“The impact on our business is going to be reducing labor; this is a job killer,” Hoffman said.
According to a New York State Department of Labor spokesperson, the proposed regulations have not been finalized, and the agency is still accepting comments and concerns from business owners at [email protected].
More information can be found at the agency’s website.
Read the original article here.
