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Wages & Hours

Security company zapped for overtime violations

08/23/2019
Star Pro Security Patrol of Costa Mesa, California, has agreed to settle charges it failed to pay proper overtime to 63 employees.

Piece work pay rate violates FLSA in LA

08/23/2019
ESS Apparel in Los Angeles has agreed to pay 21 employees $53,876 in back pay and overtime to resolve charges it violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Appeals court reverses course: Sometimes a ‘service charge’ really is a gratuity

08/23/2019
A California state appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit asking whether banquet “service charges” are tips payable to servers under Labor Code Section 351.

‘Predictive scheduling’ laws pick up steam

08/15/2019
Does your organization sometimes cancel employees’ shifts at the last minute, schedule extra workers for peak times (then send some of them home) or require employees to be prepared to call in to work at any time? If so, a growing trend of local laws could make those practices unlawful.

Overtime rule forwarded to White House for final review

08/13/2019
The Department of Labor sent its long-awaited white-collar overtime rule to the White House for a final review on Aug. 12. If enacted, the rule would raise the minimum overtime salary threshold by 50% from the current $23,660.

Employer survey: Pay to rise a modest 3% in 2020

08/13/2019
U.S. employees hoping for larger pay raises next year may be disappointed. A new survey by the Willis Towers Watson consulting firm finds that U.S. employers plan to hold the line on budgeted pay raises in 2020, despite low unemployment and a tight labor market.

Can we make pay raises contingent on doing charitable volunteer work?

07/30/2019
Q. Our new CEO believes in volunteering and wants to institute a new requirement that all employees volunteer at least five hours per month to be eligible for pay increases at evaluation time. She wants to provide a list of appropriate places to volunteer. Can she do this?

New tip-pool rules under review

07/30/2019
The federal Office of Management and Budget on July 26 began reviewing a proposed rule that would formally prohibit business owners and managers from pocketing a portion of their employees’ tips if they pay employees a subminimum, tip-credit wage of $2.13 per hour instead of the usual minimum wage.

House votes to raise federal minimum wage to $15 per hour

07/23/2019
The House of Representatives voted July 18 to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, passing legislation that will probably not have even a committee hearing in the Republican-controlled Senate.

On World Cup bandwagon, NY enacts equal pay laws

07/11/2019
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo chose an apt setting to sign legislation mandating equal pay for substantially equal work, regardless of an employee’s protected class.