On August 23, 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a 2021 regulation by the U.S. Department of Labor restricting employers’ use of the tip credit for tipped employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The...more
After a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas blocked the DOL’s new overtime exemption rule as it pertains to Texas state employees, another judge in the Northern District of Texas declined to issue a similar...more
7/3/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Labor Reform ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
On Friday, a federal district court granted a preliminary injunction sought by the State of Texas to block implementation of the U.S. Department of Labor’s new rule increasing minimum salaries for overtime exempt employee....more
With the DOL’s new overtime exemption rule set to go into effect on July 1 and no ruling yet on the state of Texas’s motion to put the rule on hold, employers will need to decide what to do with exempt employees whose minimum...more
The clock is quickly ticking down to July 1, when the U.S. Department of Labor’s new rule increasing the minimum salary for many employees to be considered exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act is supposed...more
6/26/2024
/ Deadlines ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Labor Reform ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Over-Time ,
Popular ,
Salaried Employees ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
A common question for schools assessing how to comply with the new overtime exemption rule published by the U.S. DOL is what to do about coaches and athletic trainers in light of the new minimum salary requirement for the...more
5/14/2024
/ Coaches ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Labor Reform ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Sports ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
The U.S. Department of Labor recently published new final regulations that increase the minimum salary level for most employees to be considered exempt under the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions to the...more
On April 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor issued final regulations updating the minimum salary threshold for employees to be considered exempt from overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The...more
On January 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a new final rule revising the test for whether workers are considered to be employees versus independent contractors for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The...more
1/10/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Reform ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Wage and Hour
In 2018, Congress added a provision to the Fair Labor Standards Act prohibiting employers from retaining employee tips or allowing managers or supervisors to participate in a tip pooling arrangement. Today, the U.S....more
9/23/2021
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Minimum Wage ,
Penalties ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
In week ten, the Biden administration’s labor and employment activity includes the Senate confirmation of Marty Walsh as Labor Secretary, the nomination of former CEO of the Democratic National Committee to the Solicitor of...more
Each week during the first 100 days of the new administration, we will provide a recap of significant initiatives and events that will impact employers.
In week nine, the Biden administration’s labor and employment...more
3/23/2021
/ Administrative Appointments ,
Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
OSHA ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety
In week six, the Administration’s labor and employment activity includes a major roadblock to the $15 federal minimum wage increase, an extension of unemployment benefits by the DOL, and unexpected silence by the...more
3/1/2021
/ Amazon Marketplace ,
Biden Administration ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
Minimum Wage ,
Unemployment Insurance ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
In week two, the Biden administration shook things up at the National Labor Relations Board with the firing and replacement of General Counsel Peter Robb, walked back President Trump’s pro-independent contractor agenda at the...more
2/1/2021
/ Administrative Appointments ,
Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
OSHA ,
Race Discrimination ,
Tip-Pooling
On September 8, 2020, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York struck down portions of a January 2020 Final Rule issued by the Department of Labor. The Final Rule provided a new test for...more
On August 27, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor added to its list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding leave under the FFCRA, tackling questions related to FFCRA leave for children’s remote learning programs....more
Earlier yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York struck down four key provisions of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) regulation implementing the paid leave provisions of the Families...more
Yesterday afternoon (March 24, 2020), the Department of Labor issued Question & Answer guidance concerning the emergency paid sick leave and expanded FMLA leave provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. For...more
On November 5, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor published a proposed rule that would make it easier for some employers to apply the “Fluctuating Workweek” method of calculating overtime pay for certain non-exempt employees....more
11/5/2019
/ Compensation & Benefits ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fluctuating Workweek ,
Incentive Compensation ,
Labor Regulations ,
Over-Time ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rate of Pay ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Labor issued its final rule concerning overtime exemptions. The rule increases the salary threshold for employees exempt under the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions (the...more
9/26/2019
/ Bonuses ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Incentive Compensation ,
Minimum Salary ,
New Rules ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Obama Administration ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Earlier yesterday (March 7, 2019), the U.S. Department of Labor announced new proposed regulations that would increase the minimum salary for employees to qualify for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional exemptions...more
On February 15, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2019-2, providing additional guidance for Wage and Hour Division staff regarding how to apply tip credit rules for employees who perform...more
2/20/2019
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Job Descriptions ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Guidance ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Q. We use the tip credit for servers who work in our restaurant. When service is slow, we ask our servers to pitch in with other jobs around the restaurant, like sweeping up the dining room and cleaning the restroom. ...more
12/18/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Deregulation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Job Duties ,
Minimum Wage ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
If you’ve been paying attention to the news relating to wage and hour law (and really, who isn’t?), you may recently have heard quite a bit about new federal rules on tipped employees, and more recently Congress stepping in...more
4/12/2018
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Deregulation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Field Assistance Bulletins ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Legislation ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
You may have read about the U.S. Department of Labor’s new “Payroll Audit Independent Determination” or “PAID’’ pilot program. Under this program, the DOL invites employers to voluntarily audit their payroll practices and...more