News of the Day

On Tuesday, the United States Department of Labor announced that its Wage and Hour Division is seeking to add 100 investigators to its team to support its enforcement efforts including the protection of workers’ wages, migrant and seasonal workers, rights to family and medical leave and prevailing wage requirements for workers on federal contracts.

Investigator responsibilities include the following:

• Conducting investigations to determine if employers are paying workers and affording them their rights as the law requires.
• Helping ensure that law-abiding employers are not undercut by employers who violate the law.
• Promoting compliance through outreach and public education initiatives.
• Supporting efforts to combat worker retaliation and worker misclassification as independent contractors.

In fiscal year 2021, the Wage and Hour Division collected $230 million in wages owed to 190,000 workers. Division representatives also conducted 4,700 outreach events to educate employers and workers alike about their workplace rights and responsibilities.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted its full approval of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine will now be marketed under the name Spikevax for the prevention of COVID-19 in people 18 years of age and older.

“The FDA fully approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine last August for those 16 and older and now has done the same with the Moderna vaccine for those 18 and older. These approvals are further confirmation that these vaccines are effective and safe,” said DHS Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake. “We urge those folks that have waited to get vaccinated to do so now and join their nearly 3.7 million fellow Wisconsinites who have received their COVID-19 vaccine.”

This is the same vaccine people have been getting for months. In order to grant full approval, the FDA required extensive data on safety and effectiveness, inspection of manufacturing facilities, and a comprehensive review of all clinical and real-world use. The full approval means that even more data were gathered and analyzed following the grant of emergency use authorization in December 2020 to further confirm that this vaccine works and is safe. All of the COVID-19 vaccines are extremely effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization, and death – including from the Delta and Omicron variants.

The Moderna vaccine was the second COVID-19 vaccine to receive emergency use authorization (EUA) in the U.S. This authorization came after the Moderna product underwent rigorous clinical trials and an expedited review process to ensure the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. FDA granted the application for full approval through a priority review designation, and reviewed updated data from the clinical trial which supported the EUA and included a longer duration of follow-up in a larger clinical trial population.

The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States rose slightly for the fifth week in a row, climbing 2.9 cents from a week ago, according to an industry expert.

Currently, the national average is sitting at $3.34 per gallon, according to GasBuddy, which compiled price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country. The current figure reflects a nearly 76-cent increase per gallon compared to a month ago and a nearly 93-cent increase per gallon compared to a year ago.

Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said in a blog post Monday that the continued uptick at the pump is because oil prices are being “pushed into territory unseen in over seven years.”

By June, GasBuddy estimated that the national average price for a gallon of gasoline could climb to a high of $4.13.

A rosier picture of Wisconsin’s budget has taken shape as the projected surplus forecast improved by nearly $2.9 billion this week.

Now, it is up to Republicans, who control the Legislature, to decide whether to spend or save that money. However, the state’s Democratic governor made a push of his own Thursday.

Under the governor’s plan, every Wisconsinite would get a $150 surplus refund, including dependents. For example, a family of four would get $600.

Additionally, Gov. Evers called for spending $131.8 million on tax relief specifically for caregivers and families, as well as investing another $750 million in K-12 education.

The proposals would cost the state roughly $1.7 billion of the projected revenue surplus.

“Senate Republicans will not gamble with a projected state surplus to fund Tony Evers’ re-election gimmicks,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said in a statement after the governor’s announcement.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said he’s looking forward to discussing the surplus dollars with his colleagues, and when his party proposed a one-time tax credit, they knew it wouldn’t result in a long-term impact for the people of Wisconsin.

“With a surplus this size, we are committed to permanent, generational tax reform, as also seen in every Republican budget over the last decade,” Vos said in a statement.

United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has announced he will retire, giving President Joe Biden an opportunity to nominate a new jurist to the country’s highest court.

In a letter to President Biden on Thursday, the 83-year-old justice said his resignation would take effect at the end of the current term, usually in late June or early July, “assuming that by then my successor has been nominated and confirmed.”

The President repeated an earlier promise that he would nominate a Black woman to the nine-member high court, which would be a first in U.S. history. Biden said he would announce a pick to replace Breyer before the end of February.

Supreme Court justices serve lifetime appointments and a replacement to Breyer is likely to serve in the role for decades.

Facing both turbulent financial markets and raging inflation, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday indicated it could soon raise interest rates for the first time in more than three years as part of a broader tightening of historically easy monetary policy.

In a move that came as little surprise, the Fed’s policymaking group said a quarter-percentage point increase to its benchmark short-term borrowing rate is likely forthcoming. It would be the first rise since December 2018.

The post-meeting statement from the Federal Open Market Committee did not provide a specific time for when the increase will come, though indications are that it could happen as soon as the March meeting. The statement was adopted without dissent.

“With inflation well above 2 percent and a strong labor market, the Committee expects it will soon be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate,” the statement said. The Fed does not meet in February.

In addition, the committee noted the central bank’s monthly bond-buying will proceed at just $30 billion in February, indicating that program is expected to end in March as well at the same time that rates increase.

There were no specific indications Wednesday when the Fed might start to reduce bond holdings that have bloated its balance sheet to nearly $9 trillion.

However, the committee released a statement outlining “principles for reducing the size of the balance sheet.” The statement is prefaced with the notion that the Fed is preparing for “significantly reducing” the level of asset holdings.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is formally withdrawing its emergency temporary standard requiring large companies to require their employees to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, the agency announced January 25.

The withdrawal of the standard comes after a January 13 U.S. Supreme Court opinion staying the standard, saying that challengers to the rule were likely to prevail on their claims. The high court voted 6-3 to stay the temporary standard, ruling that OSHA did not have the authority to issue the mandate.

The mandate, issued November 5, would have required companies with 100 or more employees to see that their employees get vaccinated, or wear face coverings and test weekly.

OSHA said that public comments on the mandate withdrawal would be “impracticable, unnecessary and contrary to the public interest because it would unnecessarily delay the resolution of ambiguity for employers and workers alike.”

The agency’s pre-publication Federal Register announcement said: “Notwithstanding the withdrawal of the vaccination and testing [emergency temporary standard], OSHA continues to strongly encourage the vaccination of workers against the continuing dangers posed by COVID-19 in the workplace.”

Although the justices issued a stay — or hold — on the mandate, sending it back down to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a possible challenge by the Department of Labor, the withdrawal by OSHA effectively signals the end of a possible challenge by the Labor Department.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Labor announced adjustments to Occupational Safety and Health Administration civil penalty amounts based on cost-of-living adjustments for 2022.

In 2015, Congress passed the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act to advance the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect. Under the Act, agencies are required to publish “catch-up” rules that adjust the level of civil monetary penalties, and make subsequent annual adjustments for inflation no later than January 15 of each year.

OSHA’s maximum penalties for serious and other-than-serious violations will increase from $13,653 per violation to $14,502 per violation. The maximum penalty for willful or repeated violations will increase from $136,532 per violation to $145,027 per violation.

Visit the OSHA Penalties page for more information.

Jay O. Rothman will take office as the next University of Wisconsin System President after a unanimous Board of Regents vote on Friday to offer him the position.

Rothman will be UW System’s eighth president, succeeding current interim President Tommy Thompson, who has been in that role since July 1, 2020. Thompson has announced that he will step down on March 18.

Rothman has been chairman and CEO of Foley & Lardner since 2011 and has been a member of the firm’s Management Committee since February 2002. He joined Foley in 1986 and has been a partner since 1994. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Marquette University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

Rothman was raised on a small operating farm outside of Wausau where his family raised beef cattle and horses. His parents attended UW-Stevens Point, with his mother receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degrees there. His mother is a retired schoolteacher, and his father was a dentist. He has two adult children. His daughter is a graduate of UW-Madison.

A 1971 state law unified two public university systems under a single Board of Regents. The UW System educates approximately 165,000 students at 13 universities across 26 campuses, serves more than 1 million Wisconsin residents through statewide outreach programs, and employs about 39,000 faculty and staff statewide.

The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) is reminding state residents who received Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits last year that they must report UI benefits as taxable income on their 2021 tax returns, and that their 1099-G income tax statements for the year are easily accessible through UI’s secure and confidential online system.

Unemployment benefits including Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation (MEUC), Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) and Extended Benefits (EB) are considered taxable income for both federal and state income taxes, and the 1099-G form shows the amount of UI benefits a claimant received during the previous year.

To access 1099-G tax statements, claimants can go to the 1099-G Tax Information page then follow a few easy steps to obtain an electronic copy of their 2021 benefit payment records.

In response to customer service trends toward the convenience of online self-service, claimants who have logged onto UI’s online claimant portal are being notified their 1099-G statements for 2021 will be accessible online and that they should not expect to be mailed paper copies. Claimants who have been granted a long-term exception to using online services will receive their 1099-G statements by mail. DWD will continue to mail paper copies upon request.