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Wages & Hours

Legislation would scrap state’s prevailing wage

04/09/2009

A bill before the Minnesota Legislature would allow the state to suspend prevailing wage requirements on state-funded construction projects if November budget projections show a 1% or greater deficit. State prevailing wage legislation is patterned after the federal Davis-Bacon Act, which requires federally funded construction projects to pay the “prevailing wage” for specific job classifications.

What to do when a Department of Labor auditor comes a-knocking

04/08/2009
Suppose an employee has complained to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) about possible wage-and-hour or overtime violations in your workplace. Once you’ve been notified that an auditor is coming, get prepared by conducting your own audit. Labor’s auditors have plenty of latitude to inspect records and interview employees, so make sure you’ve done everything […]

Public employees must choose: Sue agency or boss, not both

04/07/2009

Here’s a bit of good news for managers and supervisors who work for Ohio public employers. Employees who decide to sue a government agency through the state Court of Claims lose the right to sue their supervisors directly and personally.

Furloughs and unpaid time off create wage-and-hour problems

04/07/2009

Family-friendly practices have suddenly taken a back seat as struggling businesses focus on the bottom line. Now employers are looking for other ways to give employees time off, albeit involuntarily. But when employers impose furloughs, forced shutdowns and reduced work schedules on exempt salaried employees in increments of other than a full week, it can jeopardize exemptions under the FLSA.

Can we dock a worker for not wearing a company shirt?

04/07/2009

Q. I own a construction company. We require all employees to wear a company shirt. If an employee does not wear a company shirt, he or she is assessed a $25 per day penalty, which is deducted from the next paycheck. Is this penalty legal?

Expect ‘lawsuit tsunami’ in wake of Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

04/07/2009

On Jan. 29, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which may be the most important change in anti-discrimination laws in decades. It applies to all pending compensation-related lawsuits, but limits back pay to two years. Employers can look ahead to many years of legal wrangling over the interpretation of the seven key words of the act: “a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice.”

Must we pay workers’ weekend travel time to new location?

04/07/2009

Q. We are closing one facility and laying off a large number of workers. In lieu of immediate layoffs, however, we want to temporarily transfer some maintenance employees from another facility 800 miles away. They have agreed to perform this work, which will take about three months. Do we have to pay them for the time spent traveling to the new work location, which will occur over a weekend?

Ledbetter’s lesson: Revamp salary guidelines to make pay as fair as possible

03/31/2009

Now that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is the law of the land, it may be time to revisit how you set starting and incumbent salaries. If you currently allow managers and supervisors flexibility on pay issues, consider reducing that discretion.

To do this week: Confirm new tax withhholding, begin using new I-9s

03/31/2009

HR pros have two important items to add to their to-do lists this week:

  • Ensure that this week’s payroll reflects more generous federal income tax withholding levels mandated by the economic stimulus law enacted in February.
  • Start using the new Form I-9 on Friday, April 3.

May we supplement unemployment comp benefits for temporarily laid-off workers?

03/30/2009

Q. We need to temporarily lay off some employees. It will be hard for them to make it on the amount of unemployment benefits. Can we supplement their unemployment benefits without interfering with the unemployment benefits?