Last Monday in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that automotive service advisors fall within the Fair Labor Standards Act’s statutory overtime exemption applicable to car salespersons and mechanics. This decision...more
4/9/2018
/ Appeals ,
Car Dealerships ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Legislative History ,
Navarro v Encino Motorcars ,
Over-Time ,
Patent Litigation ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Service Advisors ,
Statutory Construction Test ,
Wage and Hour
We frequently receive questions from employers faced with employees who have worked unauthorized overtime and who demand payment for hours the employer says it neither requested nor needed. The employer asks whether the...more
The federal Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recently announced a six-month self-audit pilot program intended to allow employers to review and correct overtime and minimum wage violations. The Payroll Audit...more
President Trump has signed into law an omnibus federal budget for fiscal year 2018. Among the bill’s provisions is a compromise intended to end litigation and regulatory uncertainty over employers requiring mandatory tip...more
For employers in the hospitality industry, tipping policies continue to pose significant litigation risks. A number of restaurant groups have faced recent class and collective action claims based on allegations that the...more
3/7/2018
/ Appeals ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
En Banc Review ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Wage and Hour
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employee compensation counted for purposes of fulfilling minimum wage and overtime obligations need not be paid all in cash. According to Section 203(m) of the FLSA, wages also include...more
Last year, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced its intent to again issue opinion letters in response to wage payment questions posed to the agency by employers and employees. Last month, DOL...more
Last month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals became the fourth appellate circuit to reject the Department of Labor’s six-part test for determining whether internships at for-profit companies must be paid. The DOL test...more
Last week, the federal Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division proposed repealing a controversial regulation affecting employers in the hospitality industry. The regulation interpreted a provision of the Fair Labor...more
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, certain drivers of commercial vehicles in interstate commerce are exempt from the law’s overtime provisions. In 2008, Congress amended the FLSA to apply the overtime requirement to drivers...more
Last year’s proposal to increase the minimum salary to qualify for exemption from federal overtime requirements hit nonprofit employers particularly hard. While the new salary levels never went into effect, many nonprofits...more
As previously reported in EmployNews, in December a creative group of plaintiffs’ lawyers filed suit against Chipotle in federal district court in New Jersey. The lawyers contended that despite a Texas federal court’s...more
11/22/2017
/ Chipotle Grill ,
Collective Actions ,
Contempt ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Injunctions ,
Minimum Salary ,
Motion for Sanctions ,
Over-Time ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employees be paid a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. In Douglas v. Xerox Business Services, LLC, the plaintiffs challenged Xerox’s variable pay system as violating these requirements....more
Department of Labor regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 C.F.R. § 785.18) state that any break time less than 20 minutes for nonexempt employees is considered compensable working time. Earlier this month,...more
On October 12, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals partially approved and partially rejected an unusual pay plan designed to satisfy federal minimum wage requirements. In Stein v. HHGregg, Inc., the employer placed retail...more
Over the past several years, we have received multiple inquiries from employers confronted with claims that they have misclassified service technicians as exempt from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act...more
The financial services industry has been a prime target for class and collective action claims for overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and related state laws. For decades, banks and related institutions...more
In 2011, the Obama Department of Labor (DOL) adopted a rule stating that service industry employers could not implement tip pooling rules, even if they did not claim the tip credit for minimum wage compliance purposes. Tip...more
As reported in EmployNews, last month in its Salinas decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North Carolina and South Carolina) adopted a new, broader test for determining when two entities are joint...more
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state wage payment laws, employers are responsible for compliance with wage payment requirements. Plaintiffs cannot sue non-employers claiming overtime or minimum wage violations....more
2/8/2017
/ Appeals ,
Construction Industry ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dismissals ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
General Contractors ,
Joint Employers ,
Minimum Wage ,
Multi-Factor Test ,
Reversal ,
Subcontractors ,
Wage and Hour
In its December Vaughn decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that plaintiffs in age discrimination cases may not collect compensatory or punitive damages. The court based its decision on its interpretation of...more
In recent years, college athletes have made multiple attempts to gain protection under various federal labor laws. For example, the NLRB recently rejected an attempt by football players at Northwestern to unionize....more
Last year in its Encino Motorcars decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ reliance on a Department of Labor (DOL) interpretation finding that automobile dealership service advisors do not...more
Last month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed its earlier position that compensatory and punitive damages are not available to plaintiffs who allege violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)....more
Many employers are approaching the time when annual incentive bonuses are calculated and paid to employees. For non-exempt employees subject to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must...more