Michigan’s minimum wage not rising in 2021:  In December 2020, the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Opportunity released a revised wage and hour poster announcing minimum wage rates will remain the same for 2021. Michigan’s Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act of 2018 prohibits scheduled minimum wage increases when the state’s annual unemployment rate for the preceding calendar year is above 8.5%.  The state’s 2020 annual unemployment rate, which is determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Dept. of Labor, is calculated by using both average labor force and unemployment levels for January through December.  While Michigan’s October unemployment rate continued its downward trend at 5.5%, the annual average from January through October currently sits at 10.2% and is highly unlikely to dip below the 8.5% threshold when BLS releases the final 2020 unemployment numbers for Michigan. Michigan’s next minimum wage rate increase to $9.87 will occur in the first calendar year following a calendar year for which the annual unemployment rate is less than 8.5% (likely 2022).

IRS issues standard mileage rates:  The Internal Revenue Service has issued the 2021 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical, or moving purposes.  Beginning January 1, 2021, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) :  56 cents per mile driven for business use, down 1.5 cents from the rate for 2020, 16 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes for qualified active duty members of the Armed Forces, down 1 cent from the rate for 2020, and 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations, the rate is set by statute and remains unchanged from 2020.  The standard mileage rate for business use is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile. The rate for medical and moving purposes is based on the variable costs.  Source:  IRS 12/22/20

EEOC approves COVID-19 mandatory vaccinations given certain conditions:  In the wake of the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization (“EUA”) for a number of newly developed COVID-19 vaccinations (including the vaccinations developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), many employers are deciding whether to implement mandatory vaccination programs once the vaccines are readily available. On December 16, 2020, the EEOC issued guidance providing employers with some information to consider when contemplating and/or instituting mandatory vaccination programs. The initial guidance from the EEOC has a particular emphasis on any such program’s intersection with the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (“Title VII”).  The first condition is that the COVID-19 vaccination itself is not a medical exam, but questions asked during pre-screening may implicate the ADA's disability-related inquiries provisions.  Secondly, employers must make religious and medical accommodations if necessary.  Source: Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP 12/18/20

Voluntarily extension of FFCRA leaves allows for tax credit up to March 31: The paid sick leave and family leave mandates under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) ended on December 31, 2020; however, the bill passed by Congress on December 22, 2020 permits employers to voluntarily provide those paid leave benefits, and receive the corresponding tax credit, through March 31, 2021. President Trump signed the bill into law.  The new congress is still reviewing bipartisan paid family leave and may try to extend the FFCRA into 2021.  Source:  Shawe Rosenthal LLP 12/22/20

Department of Justice files criminal charges against healthcare executive for wage-fixing conspiracy:  On December 10, 2020, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that a grand jury indicted the former owner of a therapist staffing company in Texas for a Sherman Act §1 violation. The indictment alleges that Mr. Jindal and an employee acting at his direction approached competitors about agreeing to lower wages for physical therapists, whom Mr. Jindal’s company hired to provide healthcare services to patients at home and in assisted living facilities. The indictment further charges Mr. Jindal with “Obstruction of Proceedings Before the Federal Trade Commission” for “ma[king] false and misleading statements to the FTC and with[holding] and conceal[ing] information from the FTC.” During the FTC investigation, which settled in 2018 with a consent decree, Mr. Jindal purportedly told investigators that his company’s wage cuts were unilateral and that he did not solicit an agreement with competitors. According to the indictment, he falsely testified in an agency hearing that he did not text competitors to lower wages, never heard from rivals about their pay rates, and did not know how much rivals paid their employees.  If convicted of the Sherman Act offense, Mr. Jindal could face 10 years of incarceration and $1 million in fines.  Source:  BakerHostetler 12/16/20

Gartner identifies the top 11 HR trends in 2021: Brian Kropp, chief of HR research at Gartner, shared his top predictions of the trends that will shape the world of HR in 2021.  1. Shift from managing the employee experience to managing the life experience of your employees. 2. More companies will adopt stances on the societal and political debates of the day. 3. The gender-wage gap will increase in 2021 as employees return to work at the workplace.  4. The significant increase in employee-monitoring technology will be met with new regulations limiting what employers can track about their employees. 5. Flexibility moves from location to time. 6. As the labor market improves and recruiting ramps back up, the two-class system within companies, between knowledge workers and everyone else, will only intensify. 7. Leading companies will make bulk purchases of the COVID vaccine to distribute to their employees. 8. Employers will be sued over COVID vaccine requirements. 9. Mental health support becomes the norm. 10. The buy-versus-build talent calculus will shift to more buy and rent and less build. 11. States will start to compete to attract individual talent to their borders rather than competing for companies to relocate to their states.  Source:  HR Executive 12/15/20