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Compensation & Benefits

Delegating Wage-Setting Discretion to Branches Won’t Justify a Class-Action Lawsuit

02/01/2007

Recently, clever lawyers toyed with a new tactic, hoping to turn individual discrimination cases into nationwide class-action monsters. They’d find a single unhappy employee and sue on behalf of all similarly situated employees in a company’s subsidiaries …

Watch for New Prevailing-Wage Rules for Building Services Workers

02/01/2007

The New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development intends to enact new prevailing-wage rules for contractor employees or subcontractors who work on building services projects at properties owned or leased by the state …

You can pay lost wages, then fire reinstated employee

02/01/2007

In a unionized workplace, it can be tricky when an arbitrator—while interpreting a collective-bargaining agreement with the union—second-guesses the employer’s decisions …

Part-time, ‘as-needed’ employees can still sue for bias

02/01/2007

Employees can sue for discrimination if you illegally figure their race, sex, age, religion, disability or pregnancy status into their termination. That’s true even if an employee is a part-timer who works only a few hours on an as-needed basis …

Funeral home company sued over wages, bias, harassment

02/01/2007

One of the world’s largest funeral home companies faces a class-action lawsuit by up to 6,000 current and former employees for failure to pay back wages and overtime of between $40 and $70 million …

If you benefit from volunteer labor, prepare to pay for it

02/01/2007

Nonprofits and employers in highly competitive fields often use volunteers to ease labor budgets and try out employees “before they buy.” But unless you structure those situations just right, you’re likely to run afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Minimum Wage Act …

Advocates urge Spitzer to get tough on labor-law violators

02/01/2007

Immigrant advocacy groups banded together recently to urge Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer to encourage the state’s Labor Department to pursue labor violations against whole industries in addition to individual companies …

North Carolina Minimum Wage Law

02/01/2007

North Carolina’s minimum wage is $6.15 per hour, compared to the current federal minimum wage of $5.85 per hour. However, barring action by the state legislature, the federal minimum wage will overtake North Carolina’s minimum wage next year …

North Carolina Child Labor Law

02/01/2007

Generally, in North Carolina children under 18 years of age may not work between 11 pm and 5 am on nights prior to a school day. However, youth ages 16 and older can work during those hours provided they have written permission from their parent/guardian and the school principal …

Local Ordinances in North Carolina

02/01/2007

Local governments in North Carolina sometimes legislate their own rules for employers within their jurisdictions. For example, Durham County and the city of Durham have living-wage laws stipulating higher pay than the state minimum wage ($6.15 per hour) while Orange County has its own human rights ordinance …