FLSA

Employers embrace pay transparency

10/10/2024

New laws in a growing number of jurisdictions now require some form of pay transparency from employers. The House of Representatives has introduced the Pay Transparency Act, which would amend the FLSA.

The 6-figure classification mistake you must avoid

09/27/2024

Classifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees has advantages for employers. There’s no need to provide benefits or pay the company’s share of Social Security taxes. Contractors are on the hook for all that. But if you make a classification mistake, it can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Federal appeals court affirms: Overtime salary test is valid

09/20/2024

Ruling in Mayfield v. DOL, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a challenge by a Texas restaurateur who argued that nothing in the Fair Labor Standards Act gave the DOL the authority to base overtime pay on anything except the kind of work employees perform.

Who can sue you if employees work remotely?

09/19/2024

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets nationwide standards for wage-and-hour compliance and also allows employees to bring collective lawsuits against their employers for FLSA violations. Can employees who work remotely in far-flung states join together in one lawsuit and sue their employer?

Blue-collar classification: Manual work isn’t exempt, even when paid on salary basis

09/12/2024

Sometimes, it’s difficult to make the exempt/nonexempt classification call. One thing that’s certain, however, is that paying on a salary basis does not convert nonexempt employees into exempt employees.

DOL investigators target restaurants, recover $2.25 million in just one week

09/09/2024

The Department of Labor’s crackdown on the restaurant industry continues. Over the course of just a week in late August, the DOL secured more than $2.25 million in back pay, damages and penalties from restaurateurs who cheated employees out of tips, failed to pay for overtime hours and illegally employed minors.

DOL’s 80/20 tip-credit rule overturned

08/30/2024

A federal appeals court on Aug. 23 struck down a Department of Labor rule governing how tipped workers must be paid for performing work for which they cannot receive tips.

Back-to-school: How to manage leave requests

08/30/2024

The start of each school year brings new responsibilities that pull employees away from work. You may try to be flexible with your parent-workers, but how far you bend depends in large part on whether employees are nonexempt or exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state short-term leave laws.

Bosses’ personal assets are at risk! How to dodge the spike in wage-and-hour lawsuits

08/23/2024

Want to stop bosses from allowing off-the-clock work or looking the other way when employees work unpaid overtime? Remind them that, unlike some other employment laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act lets employees sue supervisors (and HR professionals like you) personally—not just the organization itself.

DOL recoups millions for independent contractors

08/22/2024

The DOL determined that the technicians were highly dependent on the company for work that was directed and controlled by the company.