In a Final Rule announced on April 22, the U.S. Department of Labor raised the minimum salary that an employee must receive for the employee to be exempt from overtime pay. Effective July 1, 2024, under the most common...more
How should an employer react if an employee claims that mandatory anti-discrimination training conflicts with the employee’s religious beliefs? Two recent EEOC decisions shed some light on this question. In both cases, the...more
For decades, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has found that secret ballot elections are the best method for determining whether workers want to be represented by a union. A recent memo from the NLRB General...more
In a memorandum released on May 30, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NRLB”) General Counsel opined that noncompete agreements may violate the federal National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). In doing so, the General...more
7/28/2023
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Policy Memorandums ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Section 7 ,
Trademarks
A National Labor Relations Board (the Board) decision issued this week served notice on employers that they need to carefully consider the use of confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions in any employment-related...more
2/24/2023
/ Confidentiality Agreements ,
Contract Terms ,
Employment Contract ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Disparagement Provisions ,
Release Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Section 7 ,
Separation Agreement ,
Termination
On Tuesday, November 8, 2022, Missouri voters passed Amendment 3 to the Missouri Constitution, which made Missouri the twenty-first state to legalize recreational marijuana. Assuming the election results are certified,...more
11/14/2022
/ Constitutional Amendment ,
Criminal Records ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Discipline ,
Drug Testing ,
Employment Policies ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Off-Duty Employees ,
Recreational Use ,
State Constitutions
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has signed into law HB 2001, which will impact employers that require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The new law protects the rights of employees to seek exemptions from...more
As states and municipalities begin to ease shelter in place restrictions, employers who have been closed or operating at reduced capacity are anxiously awaiting a return to more normal operations. Reopening will not, however,...more
On April 1, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued temporary regulations related to the new Families First Coronavirus Response Act. One notable feature of the regulations is that the DOL clarified the documentation an...more
On Tuesday, March 24, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a 14 question “Q & A”, posted on its website, about the recently-enacted federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act. In the Q&A, the DOL announced the...more
The federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act, passed today and effective within 15 days, includes two provisions aimed at reducing the financial impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on workers: Emergency Paid Sick Leave...more
While the incidence of COVID-19 (“coronavirus”) in the United States is still low, employers would be well advised to consider the potential impact on the workplace and strategies to respond.
The U.S. Centers for Disease...more
The minimum salary necessary to qualify an employee as “exempt” from overtime pay will rise to $684 per week, under a Final Rule announced by the United States Department of Labor. The new salary threshold, an increase from...more
A new Chicago ordinance places complicated restrictions on how employers in 7 industries can schedule employees for work. Employers will face stiff financial penalties for failing to follow the new rules....more
7/30/2019
/ Covered Employees ,
Employee Rights ,
Fair Workweek ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Janitorial Services ,
Local Ordinance ,
Manufacturers ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Retailers ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
The Kansas City, Missouri council has approved an ordinance that will prohibit Kansas City employers from inquiring into a job applicant’s previous salary history. The goal is to reduce a gender pay gap which, according to...more
A significant expansion to the data many employers must report to the federal government has been given new life by a federal court. A 2016 mandate that required pay information be added to an employer’s annual EEO-1 report...more
4/29/2019
/ Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
OMB ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Gap ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
On March 7, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a proposed rule to update the salary threshold required to qualify for overtime exempt status. The proposal would set the minimum salary level to $679 per week (equivalent to...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that an employer may include a class action waiver in arbitration agreements with its employees. Thus, an employer may validly require that an employee arbitrate disputes on an individual...more
5/23/2018
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Epic Systems Corp v Lewis ,
Ernst & Young v Morris ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Murphy Oil v NLRB ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Savings Clause ,
SCOTUS
Allegations of sexual harassment occurring for years or even decades have roiled the news in 2017. Some argue that settlements of these issues that required the parties to maintain confidentiality have protected repeat...more
The National Labor Relations Board took steps in a decision, announced December 14, to bring predictability and reasonableness to the vexing question of whether certain employer policies, rules and handbook provisions violate...more
Missouri is now the 28th Right to Work state after Governor Eric Greitens signed Senate Bill No. 19 into law. The law becomes effective on August 28, 2017....more
As many employers may remember, on August, 22, 2016, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that class-action waivers in mandatory employee arbitration agreements were unlawful, holding...more
A federal District Judge in Texas today entered a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Department of Labor from enforcing its new overtime rules. The new rules, intended to take effect December 1, raise the minimum salary...more
President Obama has announced that the EEOC is proposing new pay data reporting requirements for employers. Under the proposal, employers would be required to provide annual information on W-2 compensation and hours worked...more
Many of us perhaps have grown accustomed to riding Uber and enjoy the often significant discounts that their services may provide as compared to traditional taxi companies, and a recent case is certainly closely watched...more
9/4/2015
/ Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Code ,
Misclassification ,
Ridesharing ,
Right to Control ,
Taxi Cabs ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour