The Year of the Strike – HAPPY LABOR DAY!
The unofficial end of Summer is upon us. Labor Day has been a national holiday since 1894 but has roots in a long history of struggles between employers and employees. Unless you are out of the work force or haven’t been paying attention, it feels like these issues have not gone away. 2023 can be called the Year of the Strike!
- Are worker strikes in the US peaking this summer? Here are the numbers (usatoday.com)
- US healthcare workers walk off the job: 13 strikes in 2023 (beckershospitalreview.com)
- 325,000 striking workers: 2023 is already a landmark year for labor (fastcompany.com)
For employers/business owners, there is fine line between managing your costs and continuing to grow your business. However, the bottom line is that employees are still a company’s most valuable asset (Yes, I recognize AI and Automation are increasingly making this statement less relevant).
Culture, pay and benefits are all things that must be carefully weighed and assessed if you want to succeed in business. By the way, that is on top of keeping your product/service offering in demand. So, what are you to do? Below are some articles that may provide some insights as it relates to employee relations:
- 12 Tips for Happy Employees Without Boosting Pay (businessnewsdaily.com)
- 24 Methods To Keep Employees Motivated (And Why It Matters) | Indeed.com
- 7 Strategies for Keeping Employees Happy at Work (shrm.org)
- 10 Best Ways to Keep Employees Happy, Engaged, and Motivated | Inc.com
I also wanted to correct/clarify two items from last week’s post on Chapter 7 filings for businesses (Thanks to Rob Bovarnick, a legal bankruptcy expert and friend, for letting me know). First, a business filing Chapter 7 does not get a debt discharge because the business closed (i.e., there is nothing to collect from). Second, since there often is no bankruptcy purpose in a business filing Chapter 7, Courts will sometimes dismiss the case as a bad faith filing.
Happy Labor Day everyone!
Here are a few other things that may be of interest:
- Check out an innovative new perspective on developing Company Culture from Chad Harvey. His Core Values Card Deck has some interesting fact patterns that are quite insightful for business owners and leaders.
- State Income Tax Consequences of Remote Workers | RKL LLP (rklcpa.com)
- Economic Review: September 2023 – Silvercrest (silvercrestgroup.com)
- Webinar | Banking Basics for Small Business: Finding a Bank and Getting the Credit, Loans, and Accounts You Need (nfib.com) (9/6 @ 12pm EST)
- Upskilling: Strategies to Future-Proof Your Workforce Webinar (9/12; 2-3pm EST; stambaughness.com)
- What’s Next Webinar Series – The Next Automation Frontier: HR & Payroll (rklcpa.com) (9/14; 11am-12pm EST)
As always, please don’t hesitate to email myself (jsanders@mpl-law.com), Andy Miller (amiller@mpl-law.com), Christian Miller (cmiller@mpl-law.com), Erik Spurlin (espurlin@mpl-law.com), Brad Leber (bleber@mpl-law.com) or anyone in our office with questions or comments.
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