Neil H. Greenberg Urges Restaurants to Raise Pay for Its Employees before Minimum Wage is Enacted

April 16, 2014 - PRLog -- WESTBURY, NY — Attorney Neil H. Greenberg, Esq., Principal/Founder, Neil H. Greenberg and Associates, P.C. (http://newyorkovertimelaw.com/), encourages restaurants to pay its entry-level employees higher wages to stay ahead of the federal government’s proposal to raise the minimum wage. He says that, in the end, restaurants who do so will see longer-term benefits that will outweigh the financial costs.

President Barack Obama has proposed raising the national minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour.  New York is on track to see minimum wage raised to $9.00 an hour in December 2015, but currently has no plan to further increase rates to $10.10 an hour. According to a February report by the Congressional Budget Office, raising the minimum hourly wage to $10.10 will bring 900,000 Americans out of poverty. The last time the federal minimum wage was raised was on July 24, 2009, up from $6.55 per hour on July 24, 2008, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Twenty-one states currently mandate paying entry-level workers above the federal rate. Between 2009 and 2013, five of the seven states with the highest minimum also saw increased employment in restaurants. For example, Connecticut, whose minimum wage increased from $8.00 to $8.70, saw that restaurant employment was up 11.1%. Washington raised its rate to $9.32 —the highest rate among the seven states — while seeing a 7.9% growth rate in restaurant employment.

Many eateries have already increased their employees’ wages on their own. In December 2013, John Puckett, Owner of the Punch Neapolitan Pizza chain in Minneapolis, Minnesota, raised the starting salary of its employees from $7.50 an hour to $10 an hour.

“I applaud Mr. Puckett’s proactive stance of providing fair, livable wages for its employees,” Mr. Greenberg said. “Employers may have to look into operating costs and product pricing to make the adjustment, but they will see long-term benefits, such as higher employee retention rates and higher job satisfaction from their workers. This means employers will spend less time seeking ideal employees and, once they hire them, training them for the job. It is my hope that other restaurants follow his lead before the federal minimum wage goes into effect.”

For more information, call (516) 228-5100 or visit www.newyorkovertimelaw.com.

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* Photo of Mr. Greenberg is attached and available upon request.

About Neil H. Greenberg and Associates, P.C.

With locations in Westbury and New York, New York, Neil H. Greenberg and Associates, P.C. (http://newyorkovertimelaw.com/) concentrates its practice in employment law. Among the firm’s focus areas are negotiation of employment agreements, overtime, minimum wage, commission disputes, employee/contractor misclassifications, severance agreements, wrongful terminations, non-compete agreements, wrongful deductions, record keeping requirements, equity compensation, workplace accidents and prevailing wages. Principal/Founder Neil H. Greenberg, Esq., together with his legal team and national affiliates, is committed and devoted to each and every client. To make this possible, the firm takes on fewer cases, and devotes more effort and time to each individual case than many larger-sized law firms in their practice areas. For more information, call (516) 228-5100 or visit www.newyorkovertimelaw.com.