FLSA

Heed this $42 million wage-and-hour lesson

06/16/2022

If you are a mid-sized to large employer, making even basic wage-and-hour mistakes can be massively expensive. To make matters worse, the Fair Labor Standards Act authorizes courts to double what’s due to punish employers for mistakes. So do most state wage-and-hour laws.

Dodge performance review FLSA traps

06/16/2022

Most employers wisely tell hourly employees not to work unscheduled overtime. But employers often send mixed messages, too, telling employees they’re expected to work hard and achieve productivity goals their supervisors set. Then, at review time, workers may be penalized for not meeting those goals.

Beware ‘salaries’ that stiff hourly employees

06/02/2022

Most employers comply with the FLSA in a straightforward way by tracking all time worked and calculating each week’s paychecks down to the minute. But every now and then, an employer tries to play fast and loose with the FLSA rules. That usually spells trouble if the Department of Labor finds out.

Sweeping FLSA revision advances in House of Representatives

05/24/2022

Nominally, the Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act (H.R. 7701) would require employers to provide detailed pay stubs and issue final pay in a timely manner.

The wage-and-hour risks of rounding time

05/19/2022

The DOL says employers should discourage “major discrepancies” between “clock records and actual hours worked.” In other words, frequent and repeated rounding could call into question the accuracy of an employer’s overall time records. So what’s an employer to do?

Supreme Court to hear FLSA case this fall

05/12/2022

When the Supreme Court considers an upcoming employment law case this fall, the outcome may rest on how narrowly Congress drafted the Fair Labor Standards Act.

DOL sessions suggest OT rule change is coming

05/05/2022

In a sign that the Biden administration is moving forward with plans to raise the overtime salary threshold for white-collar employees, the Department of Labor is holding a series of “listening sessions” to gather employer and employee feedback on revising the Fair Labor Standards Act’s exemptions for executive, administrative and professional employees.

There’s no free lunch … or free work

04/21/2022

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that you pay at least minimum wage for all hours worked by employees. In almost all cases, “free” work is illegal, and you can’t just get around that requirement by citing “noncompensation” in a job ad, or by having an employee sign away their rights to compensation.

Is misclassification an unfair labor practice?

04/21/2022

Employers struggling to correctly classify independent contractors already have to worry about complying with Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service rules. They may soon have to add the National Labor Relations Board to the list of federal agencies looking over their shoulders.

Trainee or pro? Legal lessons from the minors

04/07/2022

Baseball is back now that the pandemic is largely in the rear view mirror and Major League Baseball owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association have signed a new collective bargaining agreement. But not every baseball-related labor dispute has been resolved. Down in the minor leagues, a players’ lawsuit could upend decades of pay practices.