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Wages & Hours

Do we have to pay for unapproved overtime?

12/18/2012

Q. We have a policy requiring employees to get written permission before they are allowed to work any overtime. However, I have one employee who comes in early and stays late without approval. Must I pay him overtime?

Must after-hours meetings be paid?

12/18/2012

Q. I own a small restaurant. Do I need to pay employees for staff meetings held in the evenings, which are not during my employees’ regular hours of work?

Pittsburgh café to serve up back pay to employees

12/18/2012
The Point Brugge Café, in Pitts­­burgh’s East End, must pay $37,719 to 39 workers that the U.S. Depart­­ment of Labor says were stiffed by an illegal tip-pooling system.

DOL: Horsham steakhouse gauchos got gouged

12/18/2012
The parent company of na’Brasa Brazilian Steakhouse in Horsham will pay $110,369 to 42 workers following a DOL investigation that concluded the restaurant misclassified servers in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Minimum wage: Steady nationally, rising in 7 states

12/13/2012
The federal minimum wage will remain at $7.25 per hour in 2013, but the minimum wage will rise in at least seven states on Jan. 1.

Beware bias claims if pay cuts are looming

12/12/2012
Like many state and local government ­employers, you no doubt are looking to cut ex­­penses, including labor costs. If you must scale back employee pay, make sure that there’s no discrimination in whose salary is cut. Other­­wise, your savings may be eaten up in litigation costs.

Can employees bank OT hours for extra leave?

12/12/2012

Q. Sometimes, our employees work overtime and we note those hours in an overtime bank so they can take time off later. One of our employees claims this is illegal and that we have to pay him. Is that true?

NY High Court peering into Starbucks’ murky tip pool

12/05/2012

The state’s highest court is weighing how New York state law applies to Starbucks’ tip-pooling practices, which funnel some customer tips to management personnel. The case has wound through the legal system as courts try to determine how state law applies to Star­­bucks’ tip pools.

Feds trim $106K in back pay from Midland landscaper

12/03/2012
Seventy current and former landscaping employees will rake in $106,818 following a U.S. Depart­­ment of Labor investigation of their Midland employer’s wage-and-hour practices.

Is there anything that prevents us from reducing our employees’ hours?

12/03/2012

Q. Can we change employees’ work hours on short notice by altering their schedules? Also, we have a part-time employee who’s been employed for a few months working 32 hours a week. She’s preparing to return to work after recovering from a car accident. Can we reduce her work hours?