School may be out for the summer, but employment law doesn’t take a vacation. More than 55 compliance changes are set to kick in around July 1, according to tracking by compliance platform Brightmine. Here are a few labor law updates to look out for come mid-year.

New minimum wages take effect. The minimum wage rate will go up in two states and Washington, DC come July 1. In Alaska, the minimum wage will rise from $13 to $14 an hour, while in Oregon the standard minimum wage will increase from $15.05 to $15.55 an hour, with different rates in place for the Portland metro area and non-urban counties. DC workers will be entitled to $18.40, up from $17.95 per hour.

Workers in more than 20 localities throughout the US—including Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles—will also see minimum wage hikes as of July 1. And in California, a minimum wage rate that applies specifically to healthcare workers will increase, with new rates ranging from $19.28 to $25 an hour depending on the role.

Pay transparency widens. Virginia and Maine will join the pay transparency movement when their laws take effect in July.

For more on the labor law changes set to take effect next month, keep reading here.—CV

Terry Crews has transformed his career several times, from professional football player to actor to television host. His passion for health and fitness have helped him stay grounded along the way, he told an audience of several hundred HR pros at the annual Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) conference in Orlando on June 17.

In his latest role, as global ambassador of well-being for wellness platform Wellhub, he’s sharing that passion with the people in the people profession and their employees.

“You have to understand it’s like a seed, and you can’t dig up a seed when you plant it because it’ll stop growing,” Crews said. “You just have to water it. You just have to take care of it. You just have to continue and be consistent.”

For more on why Crews wants HR to prioritize employee well-being, keep reading here.—MC

Once again, for-profit hospital executive compensation numbers are out, and once again, people are outraged.

Even Congress is getting frustrated, as the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing in April questioning hospital CEOs on their spending and growing healthcare costs. People in the US owe a collective $220 billion in medical debt, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, and healthcare costs are expected to rise 9% this year, according to a Business Group on Health survey.

While executives during the hearing blamed rising premiums and said consolidation could help, nurses on the ground pushed back.

“It is simply outrageous and immoral that healthcare CEOs take home multimillion-dollar compensation packages as we workers and patients witness skyrocketing healthcare costs and face chronic short-staffing that undermines patient care in our hospitals,” Karena Jimenez Pulido, chief nurse representative with National Nurses United at HCA Florida Largo Hospital, told us via email.

For more on laws limiting executive compensation, keep reading on Healthcare Brew.—CM

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