Because exempt misclassification issues are among those more prominently revealed during Wage-Hour Division investigations and are often the focus of costly litigation, this chapter of our FLSA Handbook explains the most...more
In this chapter of our FLSA Handbook, we provide an overview of measures that an employer can take to comply with state and federal wage and hour laws. We also provide an outline to assist employers in structuring their own...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals last week affirmed a district court’s denial of class certification of a state overtime claim on numerosity grounds, reasoning that the touchstone for that element is...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: 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 recently joined the Second, Fourth, Eighth, and D.C. Circuits in holding that the relevant unit for determining minimum-wage compliance under the FLSA is the workweek as a whole, rather...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A recent decision highlights why the FLSA is not always the remedial statute created to protect low-income workers by holding that four commission-based sales representatives, each earning six figures, were...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: As previously discussed in this space, the Ninth Circuit recently chose to side with the Second Circuit, and not the Sixth Circuit, and ruled that mortgage underwriters fail to meet the FLSA’s...more
9/29/2017
/ Administrative Exemption ,
Appeals ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Over-Time ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Underwriting ,
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
Seyfarth Synopsis: By resurrecting reliance on the administrative/production dichotomy in FLSA administrative exemption cases, the Ninth Circuit is at odds with the California Supreme Court’s application of the state’s...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
Seyfarth Synopsis: An unpopular DOL regulation that prohibits employers from retaining customer tips received another blow this summer. The Tenth Circuit joined the Fourth Circuit and several district courts in holding that...more
7/11/2017
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Wage ,
Popular ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Employers have faced questions about the enforceability of arbitration agreements with class and collective action waivers since the NLRB’s highly controversial D.R. Horton decision in 2012, which held that the waivers...more
Pending before the United States Supreme Court is a petition for writ of certiorari asking the Court to determine whether an employer may use payments for bona fide meal periods as an offset/credit against compensable work...more
6/7/2017
/ Collective Actions ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Doffing ,
Donning ,
DuPont ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Safety Equipment ,
SCOTUS ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: Federal court denies motion for conditional certification for a proposed class of employees working at separate Subway franchises.
Earlier this year, the DOL’s Wage-Hour Division issued a...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: New decision from Northern District of Georgia rejects the DOL’s interpretation of the FLSA tip credit law. Holds that the FLSA does not regulate tips received by employees who are paid at least minimum...more
8/9/2016
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
The Department of Labor’s release of the new exemption regulations appears imminent. As we have reported in a number of posts, these new rules are expected to nearly double the minimum annual salary level required for...more