Wages & Hours

DOL seizes, sells owners’ real estate to obtain back pay

09/15/2022

It took seven years, but the Department of Labor—a tenacious litigator if ever there was one—finally secured back pay for 478 workers who were employed by four related Massachusetts construction companies.

New Calif. fast-food worker law could spread

09/08/2022

The California legislature has enacted a first-in-the-nation law designed to grant broad protections to employees working in fast-food restaurants. As is often the case, it’s a California employment law that could well become a model for similar legislation in other states.

Huge settlement highlights local law risks

08/18/2022

Gone are the days when big verdicts or settlements were all the result of running afoul of federal laws. These days, employers also have to worry about increasingly aggressive state and local government agencies enforcing their own anti-discrimination laws and other employment ordinances.

Stop unauthorized work by remote employees

08/18/2022

If you have employees who work remotely at least some of the time, you know how difficult it is to keep tabs on exactly what they are doing and when they’re doing it. That can be bad news if those employees are nonexempt. They must be paid for all work they perform—whether you knew they were working or not. The good news is that you can set up systems that prevent unauthorized telework.

DOL offers online training on prevailing-wage compliance

08/16/2022

Complying with prevailing-wage regulations can be tricky. To make it easier, the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division is conducting two free online seminars.

Ensure exempt teleworkers are properly classified

08/04/2022

If you have exempt employees who work remotely, be sure they really are exempt. It’s important because it is difficult to track teleworkers’ time. If they have been misclassified, you could violate the Fair Labor Standards Act in two ways: failing to pay overtime and failing to properly track all hours worked.

Tight labor market to drive higher pay in 2023

07/26/2022

Salary budgets for U.S. employees are projected to increase in 2023, mainly influenced by a labor market with more open jobs than people to fill them.

Consider trading telework for lower pay

07/26/2022

Asking employees to take a pay cut in exchange for the flexibility of working remotely could help you attract and retain workers while also reducing payroll costs. It’s a trend that is gathering steam according to a recent report by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Biden’s White House will be first to pay its interns

07/19/2022

To determine if interns should be paid, the Department of Labor and the courts have used a primary-beneficiary test, which looks at who benefits most—the employer or the intern.

Survey: HR pros concerned about effects of inflation

07/14/2022

Inflation and its effect on employees and their organizations’ compensation strategies is a significant concern for 73% of HR professionals polled earlier this month by the Society for Human Resource Management.