A federal district court’s unanticipated injunction on November 22 blocked the planned December 1 implementation date for the Department of Labor’s (DOL) increased minimum salary required to claim most exemptions from the...more
On November 22, a federal district court judge in Texas issued a nationwide injunction prohibiting the Department of Labor from enacting its new overtime exemption salary increase on December 1 as scheduled. The judge...more
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, overtime pay is calculated based on the employee’s “regular rate.” The regular rate includes not just base compensation, but bonuses, incentive pay, commissions and other forms of cash and...more
With the December 1 effective date approaching for the Department of Labor’s increase in the minimum salary for claiming most overtime exemptions, many employers are considering moving employees to the fluctuating workweek...more
Neither the federal Fair Labor Standards Act nor wage payment laws in place in most states require that employers provide non-exempt employees with paid meal and other breaks. However, employers commonly offer employees paid...more
The December 1 effective date is rapidly approaching for the Department of Labor’s new white-collar overtime exemption salary levels. Employers struggling with their ability to pay the more than doubled salary minimums are...more
Employers faced with more than doubling the minimum salary paid to employees to maintain their overtime exempt status basically have two choices. First, they can increase the employees’ salaries to the new minimum. Second,...more
Managed care companies help insurers and government programs coordinate healthcare plans by making coverage determinations for participants. In many situations, case managers conduct utilization reviews to determine the...more
Last week, a federal district court judge in California declined to certify a collective action claim by minor league baseball players who alleged they had not been paid overtime as required under the Fair Labor Standards Act...more
Overtime paid to non-exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act must be at time and one-half of the employee’s “regular rate.” The regular rate includes most compensation paid to the employee, such as bonuses and...more
Restaurants and some other businesses that use employees partially compensated by tips can claim a tip credit toward the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage requirements. However, the FLSA strictly regulates the servers’...more
The North Carolina Wage and Hour Act imposes liability on employers for failure to pay promised wages. The law is modeled after the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and like the FLSA, individual managers and officers of a...more
In order to claim most exemptions from overtime and minimum wage requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay a guaranteed salary. Employers can only deduct from such salaries in very limited...more
On June 20, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to provide a definitive opinion on a pay issue that has concerned automobile dealerships for years. The question involves whether dealership service advisors fall under the...more
6/28/2016
/ Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Car Dealerships ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Navarro v Encino Motorcars ,
Over-Time ,
Sales Commissions ,
SCOTUS ,
Service Advisors ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Last month’s CRST decision by the U.S. Supreme Court raised hopes for employers seeking to recover attorneys’ fees from the EEOC after prevailing in litigation against the agency. Last week, the Eighth Circuit Court of...more
Earlier this month in McFeeley v. Jackson Street Entertainment, LLC, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North Carolina and South Carolina) concluded that exotic dancers were employees entitled to minimum...more
For more than a half-century, Department of Labor regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act have allowed employers to adopt an administrative rounding policy to prevent situations where the employer would be...more
The Department of Labor’s new salary level of $47,476 for white collar employees exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act takes effect December 1. While the new rules more than double the current...more
On May 18, 2016, the federal Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued final regulations that dramatically increase the minimum salary required to claim exemption from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor...more
The Fair Labor Standards Act contains regulations explaining when time spent by new employees training for their jobs is compensable working time. In most circumstances, the employer must pay trainees for time spent learning...more
In its 2011 Dukes decision, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the circumstances under which groups of employees can maintain class action claims relating to their employment. In that case, the Court concluded that Wal-Mart...more
3/28/2016
/ Admissible Evidence ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Collective Actions ,
Commonality ,
Doffing ,
Donning ,
Dukes v Wal-Mart ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
SCOTUS ,
Statistical Sampling ,
Tyson Foods ,
Tyson Foods v Bouaphakeo ,
Wage and Hour
Earlier this month, financial companies won a victory in the long-standing battle over whether employees involved in mortgage originations and approvals are exempt from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards...more
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers are liable for payment of overtime to covered employees. This requirement applies to time that is not specifically authorized by the employer if it is “suffered,” meaning that the...more
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North Carolina and South Carolina) is among the minority of federal appellate circuits that restricts the ability of employers and employees to release claims for unpaid...more
Federal Department of Labor regulations have long prohibited employers from requiring that servers, hostesses and bartenders pool a portion of their tips to share with other restaurant employees such as bussers and cooks. For...more