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FLSA

Colorado Child Labor Law

02/01/2008

Besides the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, Colorado employers must also comply with the state’s child labor law, administered by the Colorado Division of Labor …

Minnesota Minimum Wage Law

02/01/2008

Minnesota has a two-tiered minimum wage. Large employers (with annual receipts of $625,000 or more) must pay workers $6.15 per hour. Small employers (with receipts of less than $625,000) must pay $5.25 per hour. But many of those small employers must also comply with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which requires paying a minimum wage of $5.85 per hour …

Settle quickly if you’re worried overtime case will expand

01/01/2008

Overtime collective actions represent a growing nationwide trend. These are cases in which one employee claims his employer misclassified him as exempt and owes overtime. The employee also claims to represent everyone else similarly situated. If such a case goes forward, it may mean the employer must pay out thousands of dollars in unpaid overtime. Employers have only one chance to make the case go away …

Caution: ‘Going by the book’ may be retaliation

01/01/2008

When an employee everyone considered loyal suddenly starts complaining to a regulatory agency about alleged workplace violations, it’s natural to be upset. But resist the temptation to send the employee a message by suddenly enforcing the work rules zealously …

Can we reclassify past leave as FMLA?

01/01/2008

Q. If we weren’t immediately aware that the employee’s leave qualified for FMLA leave, can we make his leave retroactive to the first day he took off for the condition? …

Staples settles overtime suit for $38 million

01/01/2008

Staples Inc., the office supply retailer, announced that it will pay $38 million to settle overtime claims brought by California employees. The settlement ended a suit between 1,700 operations and sales managers in California who claimed they were misclassified as exempt executive employees under state law …

Clocking in and out: Can we round up or down?

01/01/2008

Q. My company tracks the hours of nonexempt employees through the use of a time clock. In determining the wages to be paid an employee, can we round up or down to the nearest five-minute increment? …

Working around employees’ jury duty obligations

01/01/2008

Q. What are California employers’ obligations with regard to workers who are called to serve on a jury? We often find our schedules disrupted, especially when the employee on jury duty gets stuck on a long trial …

FLSA—Not state law—Provides remedy for W&H violations

01/01/2008

Lawyers representing employees in class-action wage-and-hour cases often look for ways to boost the amount of damages they can collect. One of the most common ways to do that: Bring in a host of state laws to set the employer’s punishment. That won’t work any longer in North Carolina and other Mid-Atlantic states. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the tactic …

Aside from normal overtime, is there such a thing as mandatory holiday pay?

01/01/2008

Q. Our business has recently started staying open on certain national holidays, including Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. One of our employees was adamant that he was entitled to “holiday pay” for the time he worked on Thanksgiving, which he maintained was equal to 150% of his normal wage, even though he was not entitled to overtime that week. Do we have to pay a premium wage to employees who work on a federal holiday? …