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Wages & Hours

Mexican food: Sure it’s nice, but is it art?

05/04/2011
The owners of a restaurant, apparently attempting to capitalize on the growing popularity of cooking as art, have lost their argument that a cook is exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The gender pay gap: 10 worst industries for women

05/04/2011
A new study by online content provider 24/7 Wall Street says the insurance/financial sector shows the biggest disparity in weekly earnings among males ($1,324 average) versus females ($872). The other industries showing the biggest pay gaps are:

Dallas company stiffed workers, now will pay back overtime

05/03/2011
A staffing company that provides workers for major hotels in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has agreed to pay more than $242,000 to employees after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation uncovered Fair Labor Standards Act violations.

Is it legal to offer comp time?

04/28/2011
Q. Some of our full-time, salaried employees have to put in a lot of extra time for off-hours meetings and additional workload responsibilities. Is it legal to give these employees extra time off from work?

L.A. employee unions sue over 2010 furloughs

04/20/2011
The International Union of Operating Engineers and Local 721 of the Serv­ice Employees International Union are suing the city of Los Angeles in the wake of last summer’s mandatory furlough of thousands of municipal employees.

California Supreme Court: Employees get hearing before arbitration

04/20/2011
The California Supreme Court has ruled that arbitration agreements are not enforceable if they require employees to arbitrate wage claims before they have a nonbinding administrative hearing before the State Labor Commissioner.

For 24-hour employees, unpaid uninterrupted sleep is OK

04/20/2011
Employers and employees can agree that up to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep time does not have to be paid.

Employees miss breaks? You owe for each one

04/20/2011

A recent Court of Appeal of California case clarifies that employers that fail to provide appropriate rest and meal breaks must pay a penalty—referred to as a premium payment—for each missed break each day. An employer had argued it only had to pay one penalty per day.

Meal breaks: You must make them available; you don’t have to force employees to eat

04/20/2011

The Court of Appeal of California has ruled that employers are only required to make meal and other breaks available to employees. They don’t have to force employees to take those breaks or eat a meal. Your only obligation: Make sure that no work is required to be performed during scheduled break time.

Federal government employer? You are liable for interest on back pay if you discriminate

04/20/2011
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Back Pay Act allows judges to order interest payments to federal government employees who win discrimination lawsuits if the employees were affected by “an unjustified or unwarranted personnel action which resulted in the withdrawal or reduction of all or part” of the employee’s pay.