Employers facing the pressure of Covid-19 or different business slowdown, and considering a reduction of exempt employee pay and hours of work, may be relieved to know that a bona fide reduction of hours due to financial exigencies will not prevent an employee from still qualifying as exempt. if still paid over the miminum salary threshold.
Read MoreEven in the era of a pandemic, or especially in the era of a pandemic, the wage and hour machine grinds onward.
Read MoreHere is a short summary of the differing scope of geographical coverage of the various federal wage and hour laws.
Read MoreHow frequently do employers have to pay their workers? The answer is it depends. Some of the variables it can depend on include wheher the employer is working on a government construction contract, what state the worker is performing labor in, what is the classification of the worker (exempt or nonexempt), and how much is the worker paid.
Read MoreDOL issues new joint employment rules under FLSA meant to clarify and narrow the definition of an “employer” and provide more protection to franchisors, contractors, and businessess who indirectly engage workers through other employers.
Read MoreComments filed by employers and employees in response to the DOL’s proposed fluctuating workweek (“FWW”) method regulations demonstrate again that the two parties see different things in the same proposed regulation.
Read MoreLook for changes in the salary basis exemption threshold, the Government Contractor Minimum Wage, state minimum wage laws, and the federal employee paid family leave law to take effect here in 2020.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor (“DOL”) has announced that the minimum wage for federal contractors will increase to $10.80 per hour beginning on January 1, 2020. This is just a minimum. Sometimes contractors have to pay more.
Read MoreDOL is cleaning up some (but not all) of the confusion surrounding the use of the Fluctuating Work Week (“FWW”) / half-time method of paying overtime to salaried workers. DOL has proposed that bonuses and other payments in addition to the salary will not get in the way of the payment of a half-time overtime premium to otherwise salaried workers.
Read MoreNew proposed tip credit rules are out to implement the statutory changes. Comments are due in December 2019.
Read MoreMost notably, the final FLSA rule dispenses with the proposed rule’s significant increase in the salary requirement for the Highly Compensated Employee (“HCE”) test, and instead substitues a modest increase from $100,000 to a new salary basis of $107,432, effective January 2020.
Read MoreComp time is ordinarily only used for public sector workers or exempt employees. But sometime workers are mislassified as exempt and erroneously receive comp time. In those circumstances, the employer should get a credit for the comp time actually paid towards any premium overtime due.
Read MoreResponding to Department of Labor investigations is not a simple exercise. While you are required to cooperate, provide documents and access to employees, you are not obligated to accept an investigator’s findings and you can question them. But, before you push back, be thoughtful. And,don’t forget to check the math.
Read MoreIn Parker Drilling Management Services, LTD. v. Newton, the U.S. Supreme Court recently slapped down the 9th Circuit and ruled that the California state wage laws do not apply to workers on offshore oil rigs. This meant the employer had no requirement to comply with the California standby time rules, sleep time rules, or state minimum wage.
Read MoreLast fall, the Supreme Court held in Encino Motorcars LLC v. Navarro that statutes should not be construed so as to achieve perceived legislative goals where there is no “textual reason” why they should be given anything other than a “fair reading.” My colleagues and I wondered whether the “fair reading” concept might show up again. Well, it did. Enter Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor wants to raise the compensation threshold for the FLSA’s highly compensated exemption (“HCE”) test to $147,414 a year from the current $100,000. That will make the simplfied exemption test, which just requires one exempt duty, largely out of reach in most exemption disputes.
Read MoreDOL issued a new Wage & Hour Administrator opinion letter on the employment status of the service providers participating in a virtual marketplace company, finding they were likely bona fide independent contractors, which would have been an unlikely outcome in the Obama era.
Read MoreDOL has proposed a revision of their current regulations regarding the calculation of the regular rate of pay, affecting meal period compensation, wellness programs, gym access, employee discounts, payments for unused sick leave, some reimbursed expenses, some types of discretionary bonuses, and tuition reimbursement programs.
Read MoreCheryl M. Stanton has assumed the office of the Wage and Hour Administrator and is now in charge of the Wage and Hour Division of the US Department of Labor.
Read MoreWhile the statute of limitations for FLSA claims generally prohibit claims older than two or three years depending on the circumstances, the courts can toll the statute of limitations from running in other, limited circumstances,. This is known as the doctrine of equitable tolling.
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