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Wages & Hours

Don’t let fines, tool costs undercut base wage

12/05/2008

Watch out if you ever fine employees, force them to pay others to perform work they can’t finish or make them provide their own equipment. Those expenses may cause them to earn less than the minimum wage.

Lawsuit: Lehman bankruptcy stiffed riffed NYC workers

12/05/2008

Miron Berenshteyn, a former computer programmer for Lehman Brothers in Jersey City, has filed a $5 million lawsuit alleging the company violated the federal and New Jersey WARN acts when it laid off more than 100 workers in September.

If you don’t track hours, overtime lawsuit may become nightmare

12/05/2008

Many employers make mistakes when it comes to classifying employees—either exempt (salaried) or nonexempt (hourly) from the federal overtime rules. Those mistakes can lead to expensive class-action lawsuits. And if employers failed to track hours worked, it makes it all the more difficult to settle the case.

Justin Timberlake is sued for wage-and-hour violations

12/05/2008

A busboy who worked in singer and actor Justin Timberlake’s Manhattan restaurant, Southern Comfort, is suing the star seeking unpaid wages and tips.

Facility shutdown, vacation and unemployment

12/04/2008

Q. Our facility shuts down for two weeks at the end of the year, and we send most employees home without pay during that time. This is the only vacation time available to the employees sent home. Are those employees eligible for unemployment compensation during the furlough?

How should we handle time off for workers who are emergency volunteers?

12/04/2008

Q. Several employees at our manufacturing facility on the coast are volunteer firefighters and medics. What obligations do we have to those employees who have to miss work to respond to a hurricane or other emergencies?

Lufkin Industries workers ratify 3-year labor contract

12/04/2008

Members of three unions recently ratified a new three-year contract with Lufkin Industries. The agreement will give 1,200 workers at five Texas plants wage increases totaling 11% over the term of the contract.

UT-Austin study reveals academic gender gap in pay, promotions

12/04/2008

The University of Texas at Austin has released a study showing large gaps in pay, promotions and representation between male and female professors in the university’s academic departments.

Pay gap growing for Pennsylvania working women

12/04/2008

After making strides in the ’80s and early ’90s, working women in Pennsylvania are losing ground in their earnings compared to men, a recent study by Keystone Research Center (KRC) found. The current wage gap is about $4 per hour, with women earning an average $13.25 per hour, compared to $16.97 per hour for men.

Temp tests Woody Allen’s 80% theory and fails

12/04/2008

Maybe Craig Whirlow, a temp agency employee from Connellsville, is a con man. Maybe he’s just a world-class slacker. Or maybe he’s a fan of comedian and director Woody Allen, who once famously observed, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”