Legislative Updates

Effective December 28, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Tips Dual Jobs final rule clarifies when employers can take a tip credit for employees working in dual roles. For example, a hotel maintenance person also works in the hotel restaurant as a server. If this employee customarily and regularly receives at least $30 a month in tips for their work as a server, they are engaged in a tipped occupation—but only when they’re working as a server. The employee is employed in two occupations, and the employer can’t take a tip credit for the hours worked in the maintenance position.

The final rule clarifies that employers can only take a tip credit when:

• The worker is performing tip producing work; or
• As a tipped employee, they perform work that directly supports tip producing work for:
  • Less than 20 percent of their workweek hours worked, also referred to as a “20 percent tolerance” because employers can’t take a tip credit for any time that exceeds 20 percent of the workweek. The time that an employer doesn’t take a tip credit is excluded when calculating the 20 percent tolerance. 
  • Not more than 30 minutes. 

The final rule also amends Executive Order 13658—regulating the hourly minimum wage paid by contractors to workers who are performing work on or in connection with covered federal contracts— to be consistent with the dual jobs laws. 

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law Friday, 10/29/2021 that aims to make it easier for workers to get medical and religious exemptions to workplace COVID-19 vaccine requirements.

The Iowa House and Senate passed the bill Thursday, 10/28/2021 with bipartisan support.

Reynolds said in a statement Friday the new law will protect Iowans' freedom to make their own health care decisions.

According to Republican lawmakers who proposed the bill, employees seeking a medical or religious exemption simply have to state they believe the COVID-19 vaccine would hurt their health or would conflict with their religion. It doesn’t require them to get proof from a doctor or religious leader.

If someone gets fired for not getting vaccinated, the new law will allow them to remain eligible to receive unemployment benefits.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today posted updated and expanded technical assistance related to the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing questions about religious objections to employer COVID-19 vaccine requirements and how they interact with federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws.

The expanded technical assistance provides new information about how Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies when an applicant or employee requests an exception from an employer’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement that conflicts with their sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, or observances. Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.

The key updates to the technical assistance are summarized below:

• Employees and applicants must inform their employers if they seek an exception to an employer’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement due to a sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance.
• Title VII requires employers to consider requests for religious accommodations but does not protect social, political, or economic views, or personal preferences of employees who seek exceptions to a COVID-19 vaccination requirement.
• Employers that demonstrate “undue hardship” are not required to accommodate an employee’s request for a religious accommodation.

Governor Kristi Noem issued an executive order October 27, 2021 allowing federally-contracted state employees to make religious or medical exemptions from the federal vaccine mandate.

Gov. Noem says she is working with South Dakota lawmakers to make these exemptions permanent and to extend them to employees of private businesses.

Republican state lawmakers have already called for a special session to consider legislation that would make it illegal to deny a religious or medical exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine by any “entity” operating in the state, such as businesses or schools.

The executive order doesn’t apply to South Dakota National Guard service members who must meet federal readiness responsibilities for deployment.

Effective Jan. 1, 2022, the minimum wage for non-tipped employees in South Dakota will be $9.95/hour. The minimum wage for tipped employees will be no less than $4.975/hour. Read the State's FAQs.

The VETS-4212 Report is due on September 30 annually. Federal contractors and subcontractors are encouraged to complete and submit the reports online through the VETS-4212 Reporting Application website. 

Federal contractors have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8, the Biden administration announced today. The administration earlier this month had announced that federal employees must be vaccinated by Nov. 22. The anticipated emergency temporary standard for private-sector employers with at least 100 employees—requiring vaccination or testing—has not yet been released.

Following a summer with record heat waves in the western United States, the Biden administration announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will draft a rule governing heat exposure designed to protect those working outdoors as well as inside.

The U.S. Department of Labor today issued a Federal Register notice announcing an annual update to the current Executive Order 13658 minimum wage for workers performing work on or in connection with covered contracts.

In 2014, President Obama signed Executive Order 13658, “Establishing a Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors,” which established a minimum wage rate for certain federal contractors that is adjusted annually based on inflation. As announced in today’s Federal Register notice, the Executive Order 13658 minimum wage rate will increase from $10.95 to $11.25 per hour effective Jan.1, 2022. The new rate must generally be paid to workers performing work on or in connection with covered contracts.