FLSA

Banning noncompetes for the nonexempt

09/22/2022

Rep. Mike Garcia (R.-Calif.) introduced the Restoring Workers Rights Act on Sept. 1 2022, a bill that would ban the use of noncompetition agreements for nonexempt employees across the country.

Pay time-and-a-half or pay the price

09/22/2022

U.S. Department of Labor investigators found Done-Rite Tree Co. failed to pay overtime wages to 39 nonexempt workers in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Diner ordered to dish up $1.35 million

09/20/2022

The Empire Diner in Lansdowne, Pa., learned the hard way it’s not nice to steal your servers’ tips.

FLSA, religious bias cases on docket this fall

08/11/2022

The U.S. Supreme Court returns for its new term in October and already has scheduled two cases affecting employers. One will address whether employers can ever pay a daily rate to an employee classified as exempt. The other will clarify whether an employer’s religious views can exempt it from state and federal nondiscrimination laws.

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.

Beware forcing bosses into nonexempt work

08/04/2022

Restaurant and retail managers who are classified as exempt often have to step in and perform non-managerial work when the need arises. Normally, that doesn’t destroy their exempt status. But when an employer purposely minimizes the number of hourly workers assigned to shifts, the risk of managers losing their exempt status rises dramatically.

D.C. Circuit to NLRB: Take a fresh look at joint-employer ruling

08/02/2022

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the National Labor Relations Board to revisit its most recent, Trump-era ruling in Browning-Ferris Industries, a landmark decision that defined what it means to be a joint employer under the National Labor Relations Act.

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.

New overtime rules due in October, likely raising salary threshold to $50K

06/28/2022

According to the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda, released June 21, the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division plans to float a notice of proposed rulemaking concerning executive, administrative and professional exemptions from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime requirements.

Heed this $42 million wage-and-hour lesson

06/16/2022

If you are a mid-sized to large employer, making even basic wage-and-hour mistakes can be massively expensive. To make matters worse, the Fair Labor Standards Act authorizes courts to double what’s due to punish employers for mistakes. So do most state wage-and-hour laws.