The child labor laws have long prohibited minors from performing time sensitive delivery services. The idea is they are too tender and inexperienced as drivers, and it is unsafe work. Recently, a pizza palor business learned that ancient taboo the hard way, with DOL imposing civil money penalties for child labor violations.
Read MoreIn with the new and out with the old. Marty Walsh takes the helm at DOL and new proposed rulemaking and pull backs of the Trump Administration’s tip credit initiatives continue apace. Elections have consequences.
Read MoreThe independent contractor and joint employer initiatives of the Trump Administration are headed for the graveyard.
Read MoreThe FLSA may permit employers to pay their salaried employees using a fluctuating work week (“FWW”) method that only results in a payment of a half-time premium for overtime hours worked.
Read MoreEmployers who encourage employee participation in a vaccination plan through a one-time bonus, may run some wage and hour risks. There is a limited group of payments that can be excluded from the regular rate of pay. A Covdi-19 vaccination bonus isn’t one of those specifically identified payments. Since “no good deed goes unpunished” and with respect to nondiscretionary bonuses, the employer may have to worry about increasing their overtime liability for Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) covered employees if the bonus is found to be included in th eregular rate of pay. .
Read MoreCivil Money Penalties were subject to their annual adjustment. This year it was about a 1.2% upward adjustment. This includes the FLSA penalties. But it didn’t affect the CWHSSA or PCA penalties since they are rounded to a whole number and the inflation factor was not significant enough to cause that to happen.
Read MoreFor many who are working remotely, it feels like decades since they’ve strolled down to the break room where they can view many notices required by various employment laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), the Service Contract Act (“SCA”), and the Employee Polygraph Protection Act (“EPPA”). A recent bulletin issued by the Department of Labor provides much needed guidance about how employers may use electronic posting to fulfill their posting obligations in the remote working world.
Read MoreThe future is unknowable. But here are some wage and hour predictions for 2021.
Read MoreDOL is scheduled to issue its final tip poling rules today. Meanwhile the DOL OIG recently found that the procedures DOL used back in 2017 to issue the proposed tip pooling rules were faulty. The OIG concludes that DOL did not follw a sound process in promulgating the proposed rules.
Read MoreA recent Department of Labor (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Opinion Letter gives guidance on compensability of travel time. Employees must be compensated for time when suffered or permitted to work. Normally, this does not include commuting time. But sometimes, this duty to pay even applies to time spent commuting.
Read MoreIf you want to give an employee a holiday gift card, and exclude the value from the regular rate of pay, it would be prudent not to announce the gift in advance and perhaps even make the award of the gift card conditioned upon “unique or extraordinary efforts” or for “challenging or stressful situations”, or for a “worker-of-the-month” bonus.
Read MoreRegardless of the ultimate outcome of the electoral process, government contractors wonder whether there will be wholesale changes for them, particularly with respect to their employment policies. Well, as with most things, the unsatisfactory answer is yes and no. Here are some examples of what might be on the horizon.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor recently issued an FLSA opinion letter that addressed whether highly educated part-time executive trainers are exempt learned professionals. The opinion provides a useful reminder that, while there are many nuances that complicate the assessment of FLSA exemptions, the analysis always requires the consideration of duties, method of payment, and the amount of pay. Hence, the answer to whether a particular employee might be exempt often may be yes—but no.
Read MoreOn August 31, 2020 the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published an official Opinion Letter regarding the new “retail concept” regulations expanding the reach of the overtime exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) based on new rules it had promulgated on May 19, 2020. DOL found that a previously ineligible industry — oil field services/waste management — was now eligible for the Section 7(i) overtime exemption to the FLSA. Thus, DOL has lit the way for more enterprises to use his overtime exemption.
Read MoreComments on new independent contractor proposed rules are due by Oct. 22, 2020. Don’t expect any major changes in the final rules as a result of your comments.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently issued guidance regarding an employer’s obligation under the FLSA to track the number of hours of compensable work performed by employees who are teleworking. Essentially, employers are required to exercise reasonable diligence in monitoring work hours without discouraging employees from reporting their legimate hours worked. Read on to learn our take on this new guidance.
Read MoreThe Trump Administration isn’t necessarily a lame duck, but it sure is acting like it by rushing employment law regulations and Executive Orders into place like this is their last chance. We have seen this show before, and it usually doesn’t end that well.
Read MoreEffective January 1, 2021, Federal Government contractors will be required to pay certain employees working on or in connection with a Government contract at least $10.95 an hour. This is a 15 cent an hour increase (i.e., 1.4%) over the current Contractor Minimum Wage.
Read MoreThe Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) has certain recordkeeping requirements that employers need to observe. This blog covers some of those requirements and the timekeeping and rounding practices that are permissible.
Read MoreThe DOL has issued final FLSA regulations defining the joint employmrent relationship and narrowing the application of the rule.
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