California wage and hour law is never so confusing as during the holiday season. Beyond making sure that employees receive their paychecks on time, employers must correctly determine the “regular rate of pay" so that they can...more
If you answered no, then you’d better have the records needed to prove the number of overtime hours worked by your employees and the rates paid for them. If you don’t have the records, then borrowing a rhyme from the legal...more
Although the plaintiff cable technicians, who were paid by the completed job and not by the hour, were covered employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), they nonetheless were bona fide commissioned employees and...more
Reversing summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the Eighth Circuit has held that jury questions exist as to whether the defendant employed drivers who provide non-emergency medical transport...more
Second of two on the FLSA. NOTE FROM ROBIN: In March, I began a series of very basic explanations of the federal laws that govern the workplace. The first installment covered discrimination in general, the second...more
Although the employer’s pay system for its auto repair technicians was complicated and at times redundant, it nevertheless constituted a bona fide commissions compensation method subject to exemption from the overtime pay...more
The plaintiff sought more than $12,000 in unpaid wages on his FLSA claims, rejected the defendant employer’s Rule 68 offer of judgment of $3,500 on those claims, and then was awarded only $97.20 plus an equal amount of...more
Two of the more complicated areas of California wage-and-hour law involve commission plans and overtime exemptions. Commission plans are complex animals – long gone are the days where Joey gets 5 cents for each widget he...more
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, retail or service establishment employees can be exempt from overtime pay requirements if they are paid more than one and a half times the minimum wage and more than half of their...more
For those of you craving a non-COVID-19 issue to chew upon, the Department of Labor opened the floodgates of debate by withdrawing the partial lists of establishments that could either be “recognized as retail” or “having no...more
On Monday, May 19, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) withdrew the non-exhaustive lists of establishments that were potentially eligible for or excluded from the retail or service establishment exemption to overtime under...more
On May 18, 2020, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule eliminating a list of businesses prohibited from taking advantage of the commission sales exemption to the overtime...more
On May 19, 2020, the United States Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) implemented a final rule withdrawing partial lists of establishments that it previously interpreted as either having “no retail concept” or...more
Section 7(i) of the Fair Labor Standards Act provides an exemption from the usual overtime pay requirements for certain commissioned employees of retail or service establishments. For decades, the U.S. Department of Labor has...more
I have handled many cases involving the so-called commission exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Section 207(i), and I can safely say that often a big stumbling block for the defendant (i.e. employer) is to show...more
Scenario: Employee is an FLSA-exempt outside sales employee and compensated 100% through sales commissions. Company has already paid Employee most of the commission due for a live trade show that has now been canceled due...more
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has revised its Overtime Rule that updates the earnings thresholds necessary to exempt executive, administrative and professional employees from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) minimum...more
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor introduced a proposed rule which would, in part, double the salary threshold required under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) to maintain exempt status under the “white-collar”...more
On September 24, 2019, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule revising the overtime exemptions that cover employees designated as executive, administrative and professional – the so-called...more
On September 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a final rule that, effective January 1, 2020, will increase the salary threshold, by approximately 50%, that so-called “white collar” employees must be paid...more
After years of uncertainty, on September 24, 2019, the Department of Labor released a Final Rule making changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) overtime regulations. BACKGROUND - Since 2004, there had been no...more
The U.S. Department of Labor issued its final rule amending the overtime regulations today, without any significant changes from the proposed rule the agency issued in March 2019. Here’s the bottom line....more
On May 8, 2019, Massachusetts’ highest court held that retail salespersons who are paid entirely on a commission or draw basis, may nevertheless be entitled to additional overtime or pay for work on Sundays. The Supreme...more
The U.S. Department of Labor’s proposed new overtime rule was published in the Federal Register on March 22nd. As described in our earlier post, the proposed new rule would...more
FLSA Conditional Certification Denied Too - The position of mortgage loan officer has been a fertile source of wage and hour claims, but a recent case from the Central District of California reflects that certification of a...more