Seyfarth Synopsis: On September 11, 2024, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held in Mayfield v. U.S. Department of Labor that the Secretary’s salary test for evaluating overtime exemptions are valid...more
9/13/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Over-Time ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Salaried Employees ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Seyfarth Synopsis: With DOL’s overtime exemption rule currently under White House review, we could see its publication sooner rather than later. ...more
3/6/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Minimum Salary ,
Minimum Wage ,
OIRA ,
Over-Time ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Wage and hour litigation and enforcement actions continued as a hot-button concern in 2023, as plaintiffs’ lawyers advanced novel and creative claims and Supreme Court and appellate-level battles took place over long-accepted...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employers frequently struggle with questions around the compensability of certain activities, classification of employees, and how to structure their policies to avoid Fair Labor Standards Act violations. ...more
10/26/2023
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Doffing ,
Donning ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour
Just days before Labor Day, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) unveiled its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”), aimed at revising the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime exemptions for executive, administrative, and...more
8/31/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Over-Time ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Wage & Hour Division (WHD) ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Seyfarth Synopsis: On June 13, 2023, the Biden Administration announced the release of its Spring 2023 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the 2022 Fall Agenda was issued in January 2023). In connection...more
6/20/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Labor Reform ,
Minimum Salary ,
NPRM ,
OIRA ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Seyfarth Synopsis: The DOL has issued guidance to its staff – that might be relied upon by courts – that any break less than 20 minutes while working from home is compensable time, regardless of the reason for the break....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 4, 2023, the Biden Administration announced the release of its Fall 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. In connection with the Administration’s new regulatory agenda, the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Today the U.S. Department of Labor issued its draft new interpretive regulation (or NPRM) attempting to define employee versus independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The NPRM...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On June 21, 2022, the Biden Administration announced the release of its Spring 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. In connection with the Administration’s new regulatory agenda, the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On December 10, 2021, the White House and U.S. Department of Labor confirmed their plan to propose new rules to increase the salary threshold for exempt employees under the FLSA and “modernize” the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Last week, the U.S. DOL issued a final rule limiting use of the FLSA’s tip credit for tipped employees who sometimes perform non-tipped work. Declining a more flexible approach advocated by many employers...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Just before the holidays, the Department of Labor’s Wage-Hour Division issued its final pay regulations governing tipped employees. The final regulations, which were published December 22, 2020 and will...more
1/5/2021
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: Much has been written in the past few weeks about a recent federal court decision that invalidated the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) joint employment rule. While the immediate reaction of some may be...more
For decades, companies have wrestled with whether certain workers must be treated as employees subject to various employment laws and company rules or whether they are appropriately classified as independent contractors with...more
9/23/2020
/ Comment Period ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Misclassification ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: More than a decade after it was originally proposed, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division has finally promulgated a new rule concerning the fluctuating workweek (FWW) method of computing...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: By eliminating two interpretive regulations, the U.S. Department of Labor expanded the number of employers that may qualify as a “retail or service establishment” under Section 7(i)’s exemption of the Fair...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Even though the DOL abandoned its 20% tip credit rule in November 2018, one federal district judge has refused to defer to the agency, opting to defer to the old guidance instead....more
1/18/2019
/ 20% Rule ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Minimum Wage ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: The DOL has reissued a long-awaited opinion letter withdrawing its previous 20% tip credit rule and making clear that “no limit is placed on the amount of [related but non-tipped] duties that may be...more
11/13/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Field Operations Manual ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Job Duties ,
Minimum Wage ,
Opinion Letter ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: In an en banc decision, the Ninth Circuit reverses its prior panel opinion rejecting the DOL’s interpretation of FLSA regulations on use of the tip credit to pay regularly tipped employees, finding that the...more
10/2/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
En Banc Review ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employers seeking to show that they correctly have classified an employee as exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements often have faced hostility from courts under the misimpression that FLSA exemptions...more
4/3/2018
/ Car Dealerships ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Salary ,
Navarro v Encino Motorcars ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Over-Time ,
Salespersons ,
SCOTUS ,
Service Advisors ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Seyfarth Synopsis: On Monday, the DOL issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking announcing rescission of a rule that regulates tip pooling by employers who do not take the tip credit.
The DOL has issued a Notice of Proposed...more
12/5/2017
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Franchises ,
Minimum Wage ,
NPRM ,
Public Comment ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Ninth Circuit has created a circuit split by rejecting the DOL’s interpretation of FLSA regulations on use of the tip credit to pay regularly tipped employees, finding that the interpretation is both...more
As our readers saw earlier this week, the Ninth Circuit recently issued a decision in McKeen-Chaplin v. Provident Bank, turning the traditional administrative vs. production dichotomy of the administrative exemption on its...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Earlier this month, the Ninth Circuit chose to side with the Second Circuit, and not the Sixth Circuit, to opine that mortgage underwriters fail to meet the FLSA’s administrative exemption from overtime...more