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Wages & Hours

Could you be sued for commuting accidents?

07/01/2003
Issue: Employees aren’t “on the clock” during their commute, so you can’t be sued for car accidents they cause, right? Wrong.
Risk: A recent ruling has sparked a new liability …

Keep salaries gender neutral; pay gap widens at top levels

06/01/2003
Heads up: Pay equity is in your hands; make sure salaries are always gender neutral. Reason: Women are less likely than men to reach the highest salary brackets, according to …

Is a janatorial supervisor exempt or nonexempt?

06/01/2003

Q. We classified our janitorial supervisor as an exempt employee. She meets some of the qualifications, such as hiring and firing janitorial staff. But when she’s on site, she mainly performs janitorial duties. Is she classified correctly? —L.B., Texas

Comp time isn’t legal, yet

06/01/2003

Q. Can our company legally offer comp time instead of overtime? I’ve received conflicting answers. —R.S., Virginia

Who’s an ‘outside sales rep’? Confusion causes $17 million error

05/01/2003
Make sure you’re not shoehorning delivery workers into an “outside sales rep” category to avoid paying them overtime. To be considered exempt under the …

Outsourcing workers won’t let you escape wage-and-hour laws

05/01/2003
When it comes to basic compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), simply calling your hourly workers “outsourced employees” won’t let you off the hook …

FLSA overhaul: What new overtime changes mean to you

05/01/2003
Your company could be forced to shell out more overtime pay to lower-paid workers under a long-awaited Labor Department modernization of the …

Ignore job titles; manager doesn’t spell ‘exempt’

04/01/2003
Don’t expect a job title to help you, or a court, determine an employee’s exempt or nonexempt status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). A manager in name only doesn’t …

Shifting exempt staff to nonexempt duties is OK for occasional tasks

04/01/2003
Don’t fear asking your managers to sweep the floor once in a while. As this case shows, occasionally assigning menial tasks won’t automatically erase …

No pay for employee commute–even on ferry.

04/01/2003
To travel to and from their job at an island-based prison, a group of Washington state social workers had to take a daily 20-minute ferry ride. They weren’t paid for …