Employment Law

Here come the new state employment laws for 2025

12/06/2024

States are emerging as prime sources of new employment-related laws. Here is a sampling of new laws scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, or soon after.

Start 2025 right with updated job descriptions

12/06/2024

Are all your employees performing the same tasks as when they were hired? Probably not. Job duties change all the time. Job descriptions should, too.

Use objective reasons to justify terminations

12/02/2024

Ensure that all terminations are based on solid business reasons. And be sure to carefully document why you decided to terminate, even if you don’t share the rationale with the employee.

Why you might want to track exempt workers’ time

12/02/2024

Because you must pay exempt employees their full salary in any week when they perform any work, there’s generally no need to track every hour and minute they work. But what happens if you classified the worker incorrectly and she wasn’t an exempt employee after all?

Court blocks overtime rules: Now what?

11/26/2024

What should employers do now that the overtime rule has been overturned? The good news is they won’t need to raise salaries on Jan. 1. But what about reversing the changes made in good faith back in July? Here are your options.

Trump to nominate Chavez-DeRemer, a pro-union Republican, to become labor secretary

11/25/2024

Regarded as one of the only pro-union Republicans in Congress, Chavez-DeRemer co-sponsored the Protecting the Right to Organize Act when the House of Representatives passed it in 2023.

Ensure timely consideration of disability-accommodations requests

11/22/2024

Disabled employees are entitled to reasonable accommodations that allow them to perform the essential functions of their jobs. Arriving at those accommodations is supposed to be an interactive process. If employers drag out that process, they run the very real risk of being sued.

Under GOP, could comp time replace overtime pay?

11/20/2024

A proposal calls for Congress to pass the Working Families Flexibility Act, which proposes amending the Fair Labor Standards Act. It would authorize private employers to provide one-and-a-half hours of comp time for each overtime hour worked.

Conundrum: FMLA leave during the holidays

11/20/2024

Dec. 25 and Jan. 1 fall on Wednesdays this holiday season. Holidays falling on Wednesdays usually take the pressure off employers to give off either the day before or the day after, just to round out the week and to show some good will. But Wednesday holidays don’t eliminate all of the FMLA leave considerations you must address.

New overtime rule overturned, white-collar salary threshold reverts to $35,568 per year

11/18/2024

A federal judge in Texas on Nov. 15 struck down the Department of Labor rule that granted overtime pay to 1 million white-collar workers in July and would have made another 3 million eligible for overtime pay on Jan. 1.