FLSA

Avoid overtime disputes: Do the math right the first time

03/02/2016

Overtime: One and one-half times an employee’s regular rate of pay for hours worked over 40 in a work week. Each part of this simple definition carries a lot of baggage

Technology bytes; the FLSA bites harder

02/22/2016

Odds are your company has a website. If you’re thinking of enhancing that website, say, with employee-written blogs, be careful. A federal trial court provided a stark reminder of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s rule that nonexempts can’t volunteer any time to their employers when it ruled that a nonexempt who volunteered to write a company blog can pursue her claim for unpaid overtime.

Exempt or nonexempt? That depends on actual duties, not title or job description

02/12/2016

Don’t expect a quick ruling when challenged on whether and employee has been properly classified as exempt or nonexempt.

Final OT rule due in July, effective 60 days later

02/01/2016

If you’ve put off planning for the big overtime law changes, it’s time to take action. The final version of the DOL’s revisions to the white-collar exemption rules will be released in July.

Prepare for overtime changes in retail, hospitality industries

01/28/2016

The U.S. Department of Labor’s proposed amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act will have an enormous impact on employers in the retail and hospitality industries.

HR director can file wage-and-hour complaint

01/15/2016

Generally, employees who complain to their employer that they aren’t being properly paid or classified under the Fair Labor Standards Act are protected from retaliation for those complaints. But what about a manager?

Minimum-wage employers plan to stay that way

01/06/2016

Despite well-publicized moves by retailers such as Walmart, Starbucks and Whole Foods to raise the pay of their lowest-level workers, 72% of organizations with minimum-wage employees have no plans to pay them more.

Worker classification: Salary is just one factor that determines exempt status

01/04/2016

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because an employee is paid a salary, he or she is exempt. The employer must also show that the worker performed exempt work under one of the several exemptions available under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

New classification aims at ‘gig’ economy

12/22/2015

Traditionally, there are four possible ways to classify people who perform work. But two classifications—independent contractors and employees—cover most work. Except, some say, in the emerging sharing or “gig” economy. Now two economists at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, D.C., have proposed a new category: independent worker.

Calif. rule on paying for time spent on security checks more generous than federal law

12/21/2015

About a year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that under the Fair Labor Standards Act, time spent waiting for security checks after the end of a shift were not compensable minutes. California, however, has greater worker protections built into its version of the FLSA. That’s why a group of Apple store employees brought a suit over their own wait time at the end of their shifts, seeking compensation despite the Supreme Court decision.