FLSA

Docking pay for snow-day absences: When is it legal?

01/04/2019

The snow’s coming down pretty good and an exempt employee calls to say she can’t make it in today because her car is stuck. Can you deduct a full day’s pay from her salary for that missed day? What if she’s non-exempt? What if you close work because of bad weather? Here’s guidance—and a handy flowchart—to help you make the call.

Travel reimbursements could be FLSA wages

01/02/2019

Under IRS rules, employers that provide a payment for travel expenses in lieu of requiring proof that workers incurred expenses don’t have to withhold taxes or contribute to and remit Social Security taxes based on the payment. But the Fair Labor Standards Act treats such payments differently.

DOL serious about nursing mother protections

12/20/2018

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued one of its first milk-expression break citations on the Trump administration’s watch.

New DOL opinion letters address wage-and-hour issues

12/18/2018

The DOL issued four opinion letters in early November in response to employer requests. All the letters dealt in some way with how to comply with the FLSA.

New York City enacts new lactation room requirement

12/18/2018

Effective March 19, 2019, employers with at least four employees must have a lactation policy and lactation room available for employees.

$3.2 million bill for contractor misclassification

12/12/2018

A recent settlement shows just how much the U.S. Department of Labor dislikes seeing employers game the system by trying to classify employees as independent contractors.

Worker demands back overtime? Investigate and, if warranted, pay up

12/06/2018

If an employer pays overtime incorrectly, it may be liable for up to two years of unpaid overtime, doubled as a penalty. But if an employer’s overtime mistake is “willful,” that liability reaches back another year, adding to the cost.

Prepare for new labor and employment laws

12/06/2018

With 2019 just around the corner, now is the time to preview labor and employment laws that will soon affect employers.

California courts take a hard line on independent contractor classification

11/28/2018

Two recent California court decisions have made it much harder for California businesses to establish that workers are independent contractors rather than employees.

DOL opinion letters address FLSA questions

11/21/2018

The U.S. Department of Labor is making up for lost time. After suspending DOL opinion letters for most of the Obama administration, it has issued a blizzard of them in the last year. Here are two interesting recent ones.