Employers have been conducting pay equity audits for decades to identify disparities in compensation that may create unfairness, legal risk, or other compliance issues. Recently, however, we have seen a spate of new pay...more
Maryland recently decided to increase the pay disclosure requirements applicable to employers posting positions for work performed in Maryland. Maryland employers must now disclose the wage range, salary, benefits, and any...more
Hawaii recently joined the growing list of states expanding pay discrimination protections and requiring pay transparency from employers. Hawaii passed legislation that (1) expands the protections against pay discrimination...more
Many corporate employers throughout the United States have recognized the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) as a matter of social justice, employee engagement and brand protection. These companies have...more
Employers concerned with state and federal equal pay requirements are now facing a new potential concern: antitrust issues. The Biden administration’s Department of Justice has announced an intent to prosecute employers who...more
As 2022 draws to a close, employers are preparing for holiday parties, analyzing their staffing, and assessing compensation for the coming year in light of significant inflationary pressures and historically low unemployment...more
States, municipalities, and other local regulatory entities continue to impose additional pay transparency requirements upon employers hiring in various jurisdictions throughout the United States. In some locations, employers...more
Federal contractors will soon be facing new pay equity disclosure requirements under a directive issued by the Office of Federal Contracts Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The OFCCP announced that it will require contractors to...more
UPDATE: In an order issued Jan. 13, 2022, the United States Supreme Court stayed enforcement of federal OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing ETS pending the disposition of the petitions for review in the Court of Appeals...more
1/14/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Lack of Authority ,
National Federation of Independent Business v Department of Labor and OSHA ,
OSHA ,
SCOTUS ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many areas of the employment landscape. Job descriptions, essential functions, ADA accommodations, undue hardship, and Title VII religious accommodations are all areas that have been...more
Publicly held corporations are facing increasing pressure from a variety of sources to disclose their diversity and pay equity data. Legislative and regulatory changes, activist shareholder groups, and public campaigns are...more
During the Trump Administration, equal pay advocates focused their attention on legislative and regulatory changes at the state and local levels. These advocates believed change was impossible at the federal level. Still,...more
Pay equity advocates have used a variety of mechanisms to pressure employers to prioritize pay equity in the workplace. These efforts include shareholder resolutions regarding pay equity, threats of divestiture, and public...more
We have previously noted that employers assessing pay equity issues must account for brand and morale dangers in addition to regulatory and litigation risks. Over the last few years, employers have seen pay equity issues...more
Minneapolis employers in the hospitality industry will likely soon have to contend with a new set of worker protection laws. The Minneapolis City Council is currently considering a citywide Hospitality Worker Right to Recall...more
With the presidential election looming, discussions about politics are happening in the workplace now more than ever. In the current political environment, these conversations may be disruptive and may not align with Equal...more
Employers assessing pay equity issues must analyze them in a variety of ways. Pay inequities can create government regulatory problems with the EEOC and OFCCP, for example, and can also present litigation risks in the form of...more
Plaintiffs’ lawyers are exploiting Minnesota’s confusing tip-pooling laws to bring class-action lawsuits against restaurateurs. These cases entail substantial costs, both in defending them and in potential damages....more
Restaurants are getting hit with tip-pooling class action lawsuits. Now is the time to audit your practices, or, at the very least, review your tip pooling policies. This is especially important for Minnesota restaurateurs,...more
3/5/2020
/ Class Action ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Restaurant Industry ,
State Labor Laws ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Approximately two years ago, a number of employers received charges of discrimination alleging that they discriminated against applicants by restricting the recipients of employment advertisements on Facebook. The EEOC just...more
Employers are now required to comply with the civil provisions of Minnesota’s new Wage Theft Statute, which went into effect last week on July 1. This week, the Minnesota Department of Labor & Industry (DOLI) updated its Wage...more
Plaintiffs’ wage-and-hour class action lawyers are constantly looking for new groups of employees whom they can claim are inappropriately classified as exempt. In previous decades, plaintiffs’ lawyers focused on mortgage...more
Wage-and-hour class litigation tends to come in waves. In 2019, we are seeing another wave gather on the horizon: misclassification collective actions alleging that companies have improperly classified at-the-elbow (“ATE”)...more
5/21/2019
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Defense Strategies ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Indemnification ,
Independent Contractors ,
Limited Liability Company (LLC) ,
Misclassification ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Third-Party Service Provider ,
Wage and Hour
Larger employers concerned about the deadline for submitting pay data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently learned that they must submit pay data by September 30, 2019. The U.S. District Court for...more
A little over a year ago, three major employers—T-Mobile, Amazon, and Cox Communications—were sued for allegedly discriminating on the basis of age in the way they recruited new employees via Facebook. The plaintiffs’ lawyers...more
1/21/2019
/ Age Discrimination ,
Amazon ,
Class Action ,
Communication Workers of America ,
Cox Communications ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Facebook ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Ads ,
Online Advertisements ,
Recruitment Policies ,
Social Networks ,
T-Mobile