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Wages & Hours

A few unpaid ‘donning and doffing’ minutes can add up to penalties worth millions

10/14/2014

With few exceptions, hourly employees are entitled to pay for all time worked. Paid time can include the time it takes to put on specialized equipment and clothing and walk to a workstation. If you rely on an inaccurate formula to calculate that time, a jury may correct your mistake for all similarly situated employees—and a judge may double the amount owed for unpaid time.

Gawker is latest target of unpaid intern class action

10/08/2014
Unpaid interns for the website Gawker.com have won a round in court in their attempt to bring a class-action suit under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Utah HR tech firm winning war on employee burnout

10/08/2014
At BambooHR, employees are out the door after 40 hours a week. The 53-employee HR software company strictly enforces a no-more-than-40-hour workweek. Employees go home on time, take every weekend off and never answer emails after hours.

Miscalculating overtime pay costs San Antonio company almost $150K

10/07/2014
San Antonio-based Costa Solutions has agreed to pay 63 current and former employees $146,459 in back pay and overtime following a DOL investigation. Costa provides logistics and freight-handling services to retail business, including the H-E-B Grocery chain.

DOL’s final rule raises contractor minimum wage to $10.10 per hour

10/07/2014
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced a final rule that raises the minimum wage for workers on federal service and construction contracts to $10.10 per hour. The final rule, which applies to federal contracts beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2015, implements a White House executive order announced in February.

When unpaid ‘gap time’ doesn’t violate FLSA

09/26/2014
With collective-action wage-and-hour claims on the rise, employers worry that they may be burned by unpaid work they didn’t even know employees were performing. But a recent appeals court decision provides a rare piece of good news: As long as employees haven’t worked more than 40 hours in any given workweek, so-called “gap time” between hours paid and hours worked doesn’t always mean liability.

Don’t let anyone alter hours on time records

09/26/2014

Sometimes, supervisors get the wrong message from upper-level managers struggling to keep a business afloat during difficult times. Faced with declining revenues and staff shortages that mean more overtime hours, they may be tempted to adjust time records to reflect fewer hours worked. But this is a dangerous tactic.

The wage gap is shrinking, sort of

09/23/2014
The Senate voted Sept. 15 to table the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have promoted pay equity between men and women.

Construction firm gets nailed for double damages

09/19/2014
West Covina, Calif.-based G.M. Sager Con­­struction will pay $146,092 in overtime pay to 26 workers it failed to pay properly.

DOL drains Lucky River

09/19/2014
The owners of San Francisco’s Lucky River Restaurant have agreed to fork over $285,732 to eight employees after DOL investigators found they hadn’t re­­ceived minimum wages or overtime pay.