The Biden-era effort to raise the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors will not, for now, get a final say by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Rather, legal challenges will continue to muddy the issue...more
2/13/2025
/ Biden Administration ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employment Litigation ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Property and Administrative Services Act (FPASA) ,
Minimum Wage ,
Non-Delegation Doctrine ,
SCOTUS ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recently issued an opinion letter addressing whether daily expense reimbursement payments can be excluded from an employee’s regular rate when calculating overtime...more
The District of Columbia’s minimum wage for all D.C. workers who do not receive tips is $17.50 per hour regardless of employer size. This rate became effective July 1, 2024 and is anticipated to increase on July 1, 2025...more
Voters in Alaska approved Ballot Measure 1, which will boost Alaska’s minimum wage and provide guaranteed sick leave to workers. First, Ballot Measure 1 increases Alaska’s minimum wage to $13.00 per hour, effective July 1,...more
12/6/2024
/ Alaska ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Ballot Measures ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Regulations ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Legislation ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
Sick Leave ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Missouri voters similarly approved a state ballot measure—Proposition A—that will increase the state minimum wage starting in 2025 and provide employees in the state with paid sick and safe leave. On January 1, 2025,...more
Voters in Nebraska approved a measure that will require all employers to offer employees one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, effective October 1, 2025. The total amount of sick leave employees may accrue...more
12/5/2024
/ Employee Benefits ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Healthcare ,
Labor Reform ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
Sick Leave ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
In a significant ruling, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has set aside a Department of Labor (DOL or Department) 2024 Rule, which sought to raise the minimum salary level for exemptions...more
12/3/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Texas ,
Vacated ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
On election day Massachusetts voters were given the opportunity to vote on the Fair Wage for Tipped Workers Act, a ballot measure, referred to as Question 5, that would have gradually increased pay for tipped workers until it...more
11/19/2024
/ Ballot Measures ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Regulations ,
Minimum Wage ,
State and Local Government ,
State Elections ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
In Mayfield v. United States Dep't of Labor, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court's ruling that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has authority to set a minimum salary threshold for the...more
Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit addressed whether staff nurses for the City and County of San Francisco (the City) were entitled to time-and-a-half overtime or whether the method of...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently determined that the Department of Labor (DOL) violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) in issuing its “Tip Credit” final regulations and vacated the final rule....more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking certain wage rules adopted by the Department of Labor (DOL) that had expanded coverage of the Davis-Bacon Act...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in Cariene Cadena v. Customer Connexx LLC on July 10, 2024, reversing the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada’s summary judgment ruling in favor of...more
The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council issued a Proposed Rule, “Pay Equity and Transparency in Federal Contracting,” on January 30, 2024. The Proposed Rule would amend the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FARs), which...more
2/16/2024
/ Comment Period ,
Deadlines ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Transparency ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Subcontractors ,
Wage and Hour
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published its final independent contractor rule on January 10, 2024. The final rule revises the Trump administration’s interpretation of “employee” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)...more
1/17/2024
/ ABC Test ,
Classification ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Definition ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Independent Contractors ,
New Rules ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Wage and Hour
Recently, in Helix Energy Solutions Group v. Hewitt, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a daily-rate worker who earned over $200,000 annually was not exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) overtime requirements. In...more
3/3/2023
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc v Hewitt No 21-984 ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Minimum Salary ,
Multi-Factor Test ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
SCOTUS ,
Wage and Hour
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the Proposed Rule) on October 13, 2022, that proposes guidance on determining employee or independent contractor classification under the Fair...more
Employers who share information with competitor employers about employee compensation, including wages and benefits, face greater risks of government investigations into violations of antitrust laws. The U.S. Department of...more
9/21/2022
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Compensation ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Settlement ,
Unfair Competition ,
Wage and Hour
The gender equity movement focused higher education institutions on pay equality. For example, in 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued the University of Denver alleging gender discrimination in...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on September 22, 2020, seeking to codify the independent contractor/employee worker classifications into the Fair Labor Standards Act’s...more
9/28/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Definition ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
NPRM ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Wage and Hour