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New Minimum Salary Threshold

April 20, 2019

From ChamberChoice

On March 7, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed rule increasing the minimum salary threshold for overtime-exempt employees to $35,308 from the current level of $23,660. Employers may recall prior proposed rulemaking under the Obama administration that would have raised the minimum salary threshold to $47,476. The Obama-era rule was never implemented due to litigation, but employers should prepare to comply with the new salary minimum salary of $35,308 if they have not done so already.

The increased salary level may require employers to classify currently exempt employees as non-exempt. Employers may need to review and evaluate who may be eligible for overtime based on the new federal rules. Also, employers may want to look into rescheduling their employees so that they do not sustain overtime hours. Employers can take many other actions such as hiring new employees to spread the workload so that each employee has less overtime or no overtime hours at all, cutting costs in other areas in order to afford overtime hours for their employees, or increasing the salaries of employees to surpass the new requirement.

Even employers who currently pay salaried, exempt employees in excess of the proposed minimum of $35,308 should use this proposed rulemaking as an opportunity to reassess compensation and employee benefits companywide. This is especially the case for employers located in states or municipalities where the minimum wage may be increasing or already has increased above the federal hourly rate of $7.25. Coupled with nationally low unemployment, these salary and wage floor increases mean that it is vitally important to offer competitive benefits packages in order to attract and retain workers.

Of course, the rising minimum salary threshold for overtime employees and federal, state, and local minimum wage requirements apply to employers regardless of what benefits they offer. For employers who are forced to increase compensation due to the increased salary threshold for overtime employees, this may mean that employers should seek out more affordable employee benefit options to minimize the total increase in compensation and benefits costs. Relatedly, employers should balance the increased benefit costs that may come with hiring additional staff (to minimize overtime hours worked) compared to the increased number of overtime-eligible employees if the employer chooses to not raise salaries to comply with the rule. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to complying with the proposed minimum salary increase, so employers should work with their benefits advisors, human resources professionals, and legal counsel when needed to determine the best way to proceed.

This article gives a basic overview of recent regulation as in effect on the date of the newsletter. Please be aware that the determination of the requirements and the application of these rules to each employer may differ due to a number of variables. Nothing in this article should be construed as legal advice.

Make Your Mark in Downtown Bloomsburg

April 19, 2019

Remember a loved one, honor a veteran, record your family’s name for posterity, or display your business name with an engraved brick or paver in the Court House Plaza in Downtown Bloomsburg. Downtown Bloomsburg Inc. is now accepting orders.

Pennsylvania Ranks Fourth in Largest Increase in Clean Energy Jobs in 2018

April 18, 2019
Growth in clean energy jobs from 2017 to 2018.

From Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy

Nearly every U.S. state saw an increase in clean energy jobs in 2018, with an anticipated 6% job growth in 2019. Read here about the latest impressive growth of clean energy jobs in America, including the top 10 states in the county. Pennsylvania ranked fourth for growth in clean energy jobs by percentage from 2017 to 2018.

Good for the economy. Good for the environment. Every day, Chambers of Commerce are discovering the positive opportunities for economic growth associated with affordable clean energy. If you are interested in discovering more about these opportunities, please contact Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy via email.


Member News – April 17, 2019

April 17, 2019
  • Commonwealth Health – Berwick Hospital Center‘s free six-week educational series, “Six Weeks to Better Health,” wraps up this evening, April 17, from 5-6 p.m. at the Hospital’s Conference Room 1 and 2, located at 701 East 16th St., Berwick. Tonight’s session is on Advanced Directives and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). For more information, see the flyer, and to RSVP, call 570-759-5337.

 

 

  • There will be a free showing of the 2018 documentary about the life and legacy of Fred Rogers, titled Won’t you be my Neighbor, next Tuesday, April 23, from 7-9 p.m., at the Berwick Theatre and Center for Community Arts, located at 110 Front St., Berwick. This event is being presented by the United Way of Columbia and Montour County. For more information, see the Facebook event page

 

 

  • Representatives from the Berwick Area High School and girls’ basketball team presented the Central Susquehanna Community Foundation with a check for $1,687 to support the Steven Mark Nastelli Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to Berwick Area High School graduating scholar athletes attending post-secondary education. 

    (L-R): Pamela Hegland, Berwick Area High School assistant principal; M. Holly Morrison, D.Ed., CSCF president and CEO; Megan Dalo, Berwick girls’ basketball captain; Sierra Miedaner, Berwick girls’ basketball captain; Kara G. Seesholtz, CSCF chief advancement officer; and Bill Phillips, Berwick girls’ basketball coach.

    The donation was raised during the Lady Bulldogs Steve Nastelli Alumni Basketball Game. More than 200 people attended to cheer on the former players and coaches. The game was established by Coach Bill Phillips and his staff and is held each year.

Chamber Calls for Fairness in Craft Brewery Sales Tax Assessment

April 16, 2019
Rock God Brewing in Danville, pictured during the Chamber’s Member Orientation held there last September, is one of several craft brewery members that would be adversely affected if a recent ruling by the PA Dept. of Revenue goes into effect July 1.

Pennsylvania’s craft breweries would have to pay six percent sales tax on every beer served at a tasting room or brew pub starting July 1 following a 2018 ruling by the PA Department of Revenue. This change comes after a 2012 interpretation that on-site beer sales were tax exempt. After hearing concerns from area craft breweries, the Chamber is calling for legislators to provide fairness with other bars and restaurants regarding the assessment of the tax (see the letter sent to local state legislators).

Most beer is currently taxed at the wholesale level. For example, if a craft brewery sells a keg or case to a local restaurant, the sales tax is assessed on the keg or case. However, under the 2018 Dept. of Revenue ruling, the brewery would have to collect the sales tax on every pint or bottle sold to a customer at its own tasting room or brew pub, resulting in significantly more tax being collected. This would put the brewer at a significant disadvantage in which a pint, bottle or growler of beer would potentially cost more at the place it was brewed than at a bar, restaurant or retail establishment down the street.

Therefore, the Chamber is supporting proposals that would also assess the sales tax for craft breweries at the wholesale level rather than the serving level.

Chamber Opposes $12 Minimum Wage

April 15, 2019

The Chamber’s Board of Directors recently voted to oppose a plan by Governor Tom Wolf that would more than double the state’s minimum wage by 2025. As part of his 2019-2020 budget proposal, Wolf is calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $12 an hour in 2019, with annual increases of $.50 per hour to get to $15. The tipped wage would also be eliminated. Board members expressed concerns about the impact on non-profit organizations and service businesses, as well as the potential ripple effect to consumers.

A report by the Independent Fiscal Office estimates that a mandated increase to $12 would lead to minimum wage employees seeing a reduction in hours and the loss of 33,000 jobs throughout the Commonwealth.  The report also concludes that this proposal will result in a ‘more difficult entry into the labor market for inexperienced workers, especially part-time high school and college students.’  The PA Chamber of Business and Industry has long advocated for policies to help low-income families without risking jobs.

The letter sent to Senator Gordner and Representatives Kurt Masser and David Millard notes that, with low unemployment rates, there are many unfilled job openings in our area with starting wages well above the minimum wage. Also, such a dramatic increase could put Pennsylvania at a disadvantage in retaining and attracting employers.

Alumna feels ’empowered, independent and limitless’ with Penn State grad degree

April 14, 2019
Anisa Sadat, who is from Afghanistan, is the first woman in her family to go to college. She’s inspired the girls and women in her family to follow in her footsteps (Photo courtesy of Penn State World Campus and Anisa Sadat).

From Penn State World Campus

Note: Employees of all Columbia Montour Chamber members, their spouses and dependents are eligible for a 5% discount on tuition through the PSU World Campus.  

When Anisa Sadat received her master’s degree from Penn State in 2018, it marked the conclusion of an odds-defying, educational journey that began decades ago in Afghanistan.

Sadat had finished the degree online, through Penn State World Campus, while working full-time. She traveled with her husband and two children to attend Penn State’s commencement last May, and her family watched as the wife and mother crossed the stage wearing her graduation robe.

None of it would have been possible in her home country of Afghanistan, where women do not have the same opportunities as men.

“It’s a great sense of honor to be able to inspire so many other girls and women in the country where I was born,” said Sadat, 34, the first woman in her family to go to college. “Besides the professional and career advancements this degree has helped me achieve, as a woman, I feel empowered, independent and limitless.

“Now every girl and every woman in my family wants to go to college, work and be independent in a country where culturally the existence and survival of a woman is directly linked to a man.”

Growing up in Afghanistan, Sadat’s educational opportunities were limited: Under the Taliban, girls’ schools were closed, women were no longer able to work, and her future looked bleak. But in order to allow Sadat to go to school, her father defied social stigma and moved the family to Pakistan.

“I felt like I was always very lucky to have a dad who always wanted me to go to school and continue my education,” Sadat said. “He used to say that in any male-dominated society, a man will always survive, but a woman with no education and no independence will never survive.”

The move cemented a lifelong love for learning in Sadat. After later moving to the United States and getting her undergraduate degree, Sadat still found herself wanting more.

“I was looking for a program that would help me as a woman,” Sadat said. “Women are not equally treated as men in the workplace, and as a woman, you have to study something that not only helps you but also helps other women.”

Sadat decided the organizational development and change master’s degree would be the best fit for her. With her husband in Afghanistan while she was in New Jersey with the kids and working, Sadat didn’t have the time to add driving to and from a campus for classes.

But World Campus allowed her to study at home and use what she learned in her coursework in her day-to-day life.

“What I learned not only helped me in my professional life, but it really helped me even in my personal life,” Sadat said. “How to manage my relationship, how to use my emotional intelligence talking to my husband and talking to my kids. You are becoming a better person and you learn something every day.”

Today, Sadat works for the U.S. Department of Defense in a role that encourages veterans to utilize the GI Bill.

“I think everyone’s job should be to motivate and empower people to seek knowledge, seek education, and go back to school, because education is the only way out of a lot of trouble,” she said. “The key to solving every problem is education. It helps you get to a better place.”

Visit the Penn State World Campus website for more information about learning online.

Classroom on Main St. Comes to Danville

April 13, 2019
Students that participated in The Foundation’s Classroom on Main Street program in front of Bason Coffee Roasting in Danville.

The 2019 Classroom on Main Street program visited Danville for this year’s program day.  This event is designed to provide high school students with an overview of entrepreneurial skills that will assist them in their future careers.  Students also learn at local small businesses, from the owners, about what it takes to succeed. 

The program was organized by The Foundation of the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce (The Foundation) as part of its annual Classroom in the Workplace series.  This year, The Foundation and the Danville Business Alliance collaborated to recruit businesses on Mill Street in Danville to educate students on what entrepreneurship means, and how that translates into running a small business.

Thanks to sponsorship from PPL Electric Utilities, 31 students and eight educators from six area high schools including Benton, Berwick, Bloomsburg, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech, Danville and Southern Columbia participated in the program.  Students had the opportunity to learn through educational presentations from local businesses: Bason Coffee Roasting, Reflex Jiu Jitsu, D’s Clothier and Old Forge Brewing Company.  The high school students also heard from college students in the Bloomsburg University’s Zeigler Institute for Professional Development and the University’s Business Learning Community. 

According to the students the program “was a good way to get some exposure to what it’s like to be an entrepreneur” and “you learn some interesting information.”  According to one teacher, “The students heard from several professionals and it was a beneficial to them.  It was a great day for the students!”

The Foundation would like to thank the DBA for their partnership to make this event a success.  Also thanks to the participating Chamber and DBA member businesses and to PPL Electric Utilities for their sponsorship of the program.

Millionaire Grocery Clerks, Tax-Free Companies Among the Many Possibilities Through Employee Ownership

April 12, 2019

The ownership and staff at Voodoo Brewing, an employee-owned company in Western Pennsylvania.

From Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership (PCEO)

Millionaire grocery clerks, real retirement savings, tax free companies. Crazy? No…it’s called employee ownership.

What if your employer (or you, as a small business owner) could sell you a percentage of their/your company? What if you paid NOTHING for the shares, but now had real retirement funds? And what if the company became more productive and was exempt from federal and state tax on profits?

This is all possible through an ESOP, an “Employee Stock Ownership Plan.” In 1974, the federal government created a program that allows owners of businesses to sell some or all of their company to their employees. 

The employees pay nothing.  Rather, the business takes on a note (a “mortgage”) that gets paid back over three to five years. 

The owner gets paid full fair market value, and now the employees have a real stake in the company and real retirement savings. Not surprisingly, employee owned companies are much more productive than non-employee owned companies and turnover rates decrease dramatically.

And here’s the best part – an ESOP company’s profits are tax free – forever. The tax savings pay off the mortgage! Yet, very few people know about this.

Pennsylvania has about 300 ESOPs including well known companies such as Sheetz and Wawa, and locally, Columbia Montour Chamber member Larson Design Group.  Read what some CEOs have to say about employee ownership.

At age 19 Cathy Burch took a job at WinCo, a supermarket chain and ESOP company. She worked in various roles – cashier, shelf stocker, inventory orderer, and by the time she was 42, she was a millionaire. At WinCo, her story is not unique. Read more about the millionaire grocery clerks.

To learn more, reach out to Rosalie Evans via email at the nonprofit Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership.

Employer Feedback, IFO Report Further Highlight the Negative Consequences of Government Mandated Wage Increases

April 11, 2019

From PA Chamber of Business & Industry

As noted in last month’s column, one aspect of Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget proposal that is concerning to the PA Chamber is an aggressive plan to increase Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $12 in July – which represents 65 percent increase over the current rate – and incrementally increase it to $15 by 2025. Additionally, the plan calls for elimination of the tipped wage – which means many of the Commonwealth’s restaurants would have only a few months to determine how to account for an immediate increase in entry level wages by 235 percent and by over 500 percent in just a few years.

In the weeks since the governor’s budget address, we’ve heard from small business owners across the Commonwealth that this aggressive proposal would have a negative impact on their companies. Responses have ranged from being forced to reduce employee hours to not being able to hire additional workers to, in some cases, having to close as a result of the steep increase in operating costs. This feedback mirrors the findings of countless independent studies.

A recent analysis by the state’s Independent Fiscal Office, which was released in late March, found that a $12 hourly rate would result in the loss of 34,000 jobs throughout the Commonwealth. The report also found that some employees would see a reduction in hours; consumers would see some price increases on the costs of goods and that businesses would have less money to reinvest into operations.

A Congressional Budget Office report also found that mandated wage hikes would lead to job loss. That study concluded that an increase to $10.10 an hour would result in the loss of 500,000 to 1 million jobs nationwide. Studies from other states have also found that mandated wage hikes have negative impacts on employment. In Seattle – where the minimum wage was increased to $13 an hour, a report from the University of Washington found that there has been a reduction in average take-home pay for low wage workers.

Another factor to consider is the impact that higher labor costs would have on youth employment. Following the 2007 federal minimum wage increase, a Philadelphia Inquirer article stated “with the minimum wage increase making it difficult for businesses to hire, an estimated 1,100 young people would not be able to find summer jobs.” This point was noted in the IFO report, which found that the increase would create “more difficult entry into the labor markets for inexperienced workers, especially part-time high school and college students.” The lack of job openings for high-school and college age students presents another workforce problem. These entry-level positions often serve as the building blocks for students entering the working world. First-time jobs help to reinforce and teach necessary “soft” skills – such as work ethic, punctuality and responsibility – that are essential to maintaining employment.

No one disputes that some individuals benefit from mandated wage increases; but the fact is, others end up being hurt – including some of the very people advocates claim they want to help. It’s reasonable to assume that moving to $15 an hour – which the administration’s proposal aims to have in place by 2025 – would only serve to exacerbate these negative consequences. As the budget process continues, we are urging lawmakers to look at alternative proposals that focus on helping individuals obtain the necessary skills-training to advance through the Commonwealth’s evolving workforce. Instead of relying on “feel good,” ineffective policies to address this problem, we need to take a more direct, targeted approach. Strengthening workforce development programs will help give workers the tools they need to fill job vacancies and close and existing jobs skills gap. Additionally, some states have implemented an Earned Income Tax Credit – which better directs assistance to low-wage workers, especially those raising families. These more thoughtful efforts will better help low-wage earners support their families and move upward through the workforce, offering long-term career opportunities at family-sustaining wages.

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