In 2024, the Department of Labor adopted regulations limiting the definition of independent contractors exempt from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime and minimum wage requirements....more
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin recently signed legislation expanding the state’s limitations on the use of noncompetition agreements in employment. Currently, Virginia prohibits employers from entering into noncompetes with...more
5/2/2025
/ Employee Rights ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Low-Wage Workers ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Risk Management ,
State Labor Laws
Sometimes a salaried exempt employee reduces their workload to part-time status. Does this change mean that the employer must reclassify that worker as non-exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act? ...more
4/11/2025
/ Compensation & Benefits ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Over-Time ,
Part-Time Employees ,
Salaried Employees
The Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to provide unpaid meal breaks to non-exempt employees if those breaks are of a sufficient length and if employees are relieved of their duties during such breaks....more
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined review of a First Circuit Court of Appeals decision rejecting a facial challenge to the way the Department of Labor and federal courts determine exempt versus non-exempt duties under...more
Last year in a rare victory for the Department of Labor, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim by a Dairy Queen franchisee that the Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits DOL from establishing any minimum salary for...more
2/21/2025
/ Appeals ,
Chevron Deference ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Franchises ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
For most non-exempt employees, the Fair Labor Standards Act considers time spent traveling during the working day to be compensable working time. Last week, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals applied this principle to travel...more
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding former President Joe Biden’s executive order increasing the minimum wage applicable to employees of certain...more
On Monday, the federal Department of Labor announced a proposed rule that eliminates a special subminimum wage for certain employees with disabilities under the Fair Labor Standards Act....more
Last Friday, a federal district court in Texas issued a decision blocking both rounds of increases in the minimum salary required to claim the overtime exemption for executive, administrative, and professional employees under...more
11/22/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Vacated ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
With the January 1 pending increase to the minimum salary required to claim exemption from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime provisions, many employers are facing the need to reclassify as non-exempt workers who will...more
The Fair Labor Standards Act contains complex rules for determining whether non-exempt employee travel is compensable working time. In most circumstances, time spent commuting to and from work is not considered FLSA working...more
Unless blocked by federal courts, on January 1 the minimum salary required to claim the white-collar exemptions from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime provisions increases to $1,128 per week, or $58,656 annually....more
Employers have been following legal challenges to the U.S. Department of Labor’s second round of increases to the minimum salary that must be paid to meet the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s white collar...more
9/20/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of its Chevron deference precedent, federal courts have begun to grapple with administrative agencies’ discretion to issue regulations implementing less than precise...more
The Department of Labor’s decision to significantly increase the minimum salary required to claim the so-called white-collar exemptions from federal overtime requirements has prompted legal challenges from employers. ...more
8/16/2024
/ Chevron Deference ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
We frequently encounter situations where employers classify their salesforce that primarily sells through telephone and internet means as salaried exempt employees, primarily for purposes of overtime and minimum wage payment...more
In its Alston decision in 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the legal assumption that NCAA athletes were pure amateurs, exempt from a range of legal protections extended to workers. Since that decision, courts have faced a...more
The first round of increases to minimum salaries required to claim the Fair Labor Standards Act’s white-collar overtime exemptions took effect July 1. Unless blocked by federal courts, the second, larger increase in the...more
On Monday, a federal district court in Texas denied a request for a temporary injunction that would have prevented the Department of Labor’s increase in the minimum salary from taking effect for certain employees. The DOL’s...more
7/5/2024
/ Compliance ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers bear the burden of proving the applicability of an exemption from overtime and/or minimum wage requirements. Earlier this year in E.M.D. Sales Inc. v. Carrera, the Fourth Circuit...more
In the days before cellphones, employees required to remain on-call for work were generally entitled to compensation for time spent at home waiting for the landline to ring. Given the ubiquity of mobile communication...more
In order to claim overtime exempt status under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s white-collar exemptions, the position in question must meet both the duties and salary tests set forth under Department of Labor regulations. The...more
5/31/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Salary ,
Multi-Factor Test ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Last month to much fanfare, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced significant increases to the minimum salaries needed to claim the Fair Labor Standards Act’s so-called white collar exemptions found at 29...more
The tip wars between hospitality employers and employees continue unabated. Numerous lawsuits contend that restaurants and other employers wrongfully retain or require sharing of customer gratuities, as well as violate Fair...more