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
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
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