The Illinois Supreme Court held employers violate overtime law by not including non-discretionary bonus payments when calculating employees’ overtime rate. The case is Mercado v. S&C Electric Co., 2025 IL 129526 (Jan. 24,...more
2/5/2025
/ Bonuses ,
Compliance ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
IL Supreme Court ,
Incentives ,
Over-Time ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
For a generation, one of the most contested FLSA issues was when employers could pay subminimum wages to tipped employees. During Republican administrations, the U.S. Department of Labor issued business-friendly tip-credit...more
Last week, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky & Tennessee, turned minimum wage law for employees who drive their personal vehicles for work on its head. While the decision...more
Tuesday, Ohio voters overwhelmingly passed Issue 2, legalizing recreational marijuana use. Today employers are wondering, “how does this new law affect the workplace?” The short answer is: not much.
Consistent with...more
11/9/2023
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Drug Testing ,
Drug-Free Workplace Act ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Marijuana ,
Recreational Use ,
Wage and Hour ,
Zero Tolerance Policies
The Labor Department released a proposed rule increasing the salary threshold for overtime-exempt employees from the current $35,568/year to $55,000/year. The proposal will be open for public input for 60 days once its...more
9/5/2023
/ Comment Period ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Proposed Rules ,
Salaried Employees ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
In what is likely to be just the first of many court challenges to private employer COVID-19 vaccination requirements, a United States District Court judge in Kentucky refused to stop a hospital from requiring its employees...more
Not surprisingly, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is looking to reverse many of the Trump administration’s employer-friendly initiatives and rules. Those reversals include:
•Setting aside...more
Last week, the Department of Labor (DOL) scaled back its financial oversight of unions. Under the Trump Administration Rule, unions had to report strike fund, apprenticeship program and other “trust fund” information to the...more
Last week, the Senate confirmed Marty Walsh as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor. Walsh is expected to be heavily pro-labor, given his experience as a trade union official. He is also the former Mayor of Boston....more
Last week, a White House memorandum implemented President Biden’s executive order reversing former President Trump’s executive order on diversity training. Notably, both orders only applied to federal agencies, federal...more
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last week known as the Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes.
Last year, the...more
Last week, the NLRB’s General Counsel rolled back Trump-era financial disclosure requirements for unions. Even without a complaint, unions were required to explain fees charged to nonmembers. Now, beyond routine financial...more
Last week, President Biden and Congressional Democrats unveiled their proposal for a $15 an hour minimum wage bill. The current federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009. In many instances, federal minimum wage...more
In early August, a New York federal court struck down a number of Department of Labor (DOL) regulations applying the new Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) as invalid. Specifically, the Court invalidated...more
Last week, a New York federal court struck down a number of Department of Labor (DOL) regulations applying the new Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) as invalid. The Court determined the regulations exceeded the...more