PRLA Summer 2019

Summer 2019 • PENNSYLVANIA RESTAURANT & LODGING matters •  21 Budget update | Legislature make-up | Summer plans | Brewers tax Tourism line item | PLCB appointee | Online home sharing registry State salary threshold | Games of skill | GrubHub alert | Legislator spotlight Philadelphia—Healthy kids | Philadelphia—Plastic bag ban Pittsburgh—Mandated paid sick leave Local Items PHILADELPHIA—HEALTHY KIDS Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown has introduced legislation that would require all foodservice establishments in the City of Philadelphia that offer a kids meal to offer one of the following as the default beverage to be served with the meal: water, milk, or fruit juice. PRLA has a number of concerns with the legislation. PHILADELPHIA—PLASTIC BAG BAN Mark Squilla introduced legislation that would ban all plastic bags that are less than 2.25 millimeters thick and non-recyclable paper bags. Further, the legislation assesses a fee of 15 cents on all other bags that are thicker than 2.25 millimeters. Some bags, such as those for fruits and vegetables and used for meats and fish, are exempted from the bill. PRLA will be meeting with council members over the summer to further discuss the legislation, which is slated to move in the fall. PITTSBURGH—MANDATED PAID SICK LEAVE The Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard oral arguments on our paid leave mandate lawsuit in October 2018. We continue to await their ruling. • Federal Items Minimum wage | Overtime rule | Department of Labor joint employer regulation GRUBHUB ALERT If you have a partnership with GrubHub, please take a moment to review your statements from them. The New York Post published several stories about the platform charging restaurants fees even though orders had not been placed. Some fees were in excess of thousands of dollars per year. LEGISLATOR SPOTLIGHT We will not be featuring a legislator spotlight in this issue of the magazine because we are still recovering and trying to figure out how to top our last video spotlight of Chairman of the House Liquor Control Committee Jeff Pyle (R— Armstrong). You can check it out for yourself at bit.ly/2LHo4IY. MINIMUM WAGE The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is once again making a strong push to consider legislation that would increase the minimum wage to $15/hour and eliminate the tipped wage. Even though the bill faces strong opposition in the Senate, it is important the House members hear from businesses about how this impacts them to either reinforce a no vote or bring doubt to a potential yes vote on the bill. OVERTIME RULE The Federal Department of Labor has released a re-write of the previous Obama Administration overtime rule proposal. The new proposal includes a much more reasonable salary threshold of $35,308/year and does not include the previous provision that would have allowed for yearly adjustments based on inflation. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR JOINT EMPLOYER REGULATION The federal Department of Labor has announced its proposed rule to “revise and clarify the responsibilities of employers and joint employers to employees in joint employer arrangements” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The purpose is to clarify what has historically been different interpretations of the Act.