FLSA

Converting employees into contractors? Prepare for expensive, protracted litigation

12/24/2014

Here’s a warning for employers thinking about turning employees into independent contractors to avoid paying benefits and payroll taxes: If some of the employees challenge the decision, you may be in for years of expensive, time-consuming litigation. That can easily turn a penny-pinching strategy into a money pit.

Pay up! Wage-and-hour issues take center stage in 2015

12/23/2014

Wage-and-hour issues could take center stage in 2015, with federal, state and local legislative battles looming over increases to the minimum wage, more wage-and-hour litigation and proposed regulations that could dramatically narrow the overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Avoid OT issues: Ban off-the-clock work and automatic nightly time-clock resets

12/17/2014

If your business doesn’t operate 24/7, you probably shut down just about everything at some point during the night. If that shutdown includes resetting the time clocks to automatically clock out everyone, you may be courting a lawsuit.

Pre-shift and post-shift duties: A few unpaid minutes can add up to millions

12/08/2014

If you rely on an inaccurate formula to calculate work time, a jury may correct your mistake for all similarly situated employees—and a judge can double the amount owed for unpaid time.

New rule on white-collar overtime pay pushed back to February

12/02/2014

Look for the Department of Labor to release a new proposed rule for paying overtime to white-collar workers in February 2015, a roll-back of the department’s original, self-imposed November deadline.

When ‘manager’ doesn’t manage, title doesn’t determine exempt status

11/13/2014

Just because an employee is called a supervisor and sometimes tells others what tasks to perform, that doesn’t mean she’s an exempt administrative or executive employee. It’s the actual duties performed day to day that count.

Qualification inflation: Extra skills & degree don’t automatically make employee exempt

11/12/2014

As the following case shows, just because you hire someone who is overqualified or has especially impressive training or education, that doesn’t automatically transform the job from hourly to exempt. Also, job titles do not determine exemptions.

When inconsistency pays: Lack of uniform policy helps get class action decertified

10/31/2014

A federal court has decertified a class-action FLSA case involving several thousand workers at a hospital in Langhorne. The class representative was unable to show that an employer’s policies were uniformly enforced and therefore couldn’t show that the named litigants were “typical” of the entire group.

DOL enlists states to conduct more misclassification audits

10/29/2014

The U.S. Department of Labor has opened a new front in its war to crack down on employers that misclassify workers as independent contractors: It’s helping states scour unemployment insurance records for evidence of misclassification.

What do we need to consider before offering extra pay for weekend work?

10/14/2014

Q. We have a short-term project coming up that is going to require some of our hourly, nonexempt employees to work some extra weekend hours. We are thinking we might pay them a higher rate to work on the weekends to encourage employees to volunteer and to reward them. Is there anything we should be keeping in mind before we do that?