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
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
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
When litigating claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), litigants are aware of long-standing case law that essentially awards a prevailing plaintiff with their attorneys’ fees absent extraordinary...more
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
In recent years, a number of states and municipalities have adopted measures that restrict employers’ ability to base a new hire’s starting salary on what they made in their prior job. In the past, it was common for...more
4/5/2024
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Pay ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Wage and Hour
We have all faced situations where a manager, coworker, or client calls or emails seeking a response outside of normal work hours. While most of us view these interruptions as an unavoidable result of technological progress,...more
Some employers ask applicants about how much they made at a prior job in order to establish their compensation for the new position. A number of states have recently adopted legislation that prohibits or limits the ability of...more
In recent years, more workers have filed claims for unpaid overtime based on occupations that are potentially subject to specialized exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Some of this litigation involves the...more
A recent New York Times article described growing use by employers of training repayment agreements, or TRAs. A TRA requires an employee to repay training expenses incurred by the employer if they quit before a certain period...more
In recent years, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has increased enforcement activities in the home healthcare industry. On Tuesday, DOL announced recovery of over $500,000 from an Alabama agency found to have...more
In order to prevail in an Equal Pay Act claim, the plaintiff must demonstrate that she was paid less than a comparable male employee. When the two employees have distinctly different job duties and responsibilities,...more
The Fair Labor Standards Act’s executive exemption applies to managers whose primary job function involves the supervision of two or more full time equivalents. In recent years, a large number of retailers, hospitality...more
When we review an employer’s overtime exemption classifications for various jobs, we frequently raise questions over whether employees qualify as exempt administrative workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Many...more
Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a proposal to increase the salary requirement for employers to claim certain exemptions from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime and minimum wage requirements to...more
9/8/2023
/ 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
For decades, the Department of Labor (DOL) has recognized the impracticability of requiring Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) nonexempt employees to clock in exactly at the beginning of their scheduled shifts. In most...more
8/18/2023
/ Affirmative Defenses ,
Class Action ,
De Minimis Claims ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Rounding ,
Timekeeping ,
Underpayment ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides covered employees with up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave, if they or a close family member have certain medical conditions. Last week, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals...more
In recent years, persons or groups unhappy about a new federal law or regulation have chosen to file suit in a selected federal district court, often in Texas, seeking a nationwide injunction to prohibit the new measure from...more
7/21/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
On Tuesday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) overturned a Trump-era precedent, changing the test used to determine whether workers seeking protection under federal labor laws are employees or independent contractors....more