The Post-Election Wage-Hour Landscape
Now that the election is behind us, employers should consider what they might anticipate in the field of wage-hour law, which is already one of the largest sources of employment-law claims. While the...
View ArticleREMINDER: Holiday "Volunteer" Services Might Be FLSA Employment
Volunteerism is again on the upswing as the holiday season enters its most-intense period. Businesses and other organizations should reacquaint themselves with the principles summarized in our November...
View ArticleIs It OK To "Round" An Employee's Worktime?
For many years, some employers have chosen to "round" non-exempt employees' time entries in computing their wages. News items in recent days have reported on a California appellate court's ruling in...
View ArticleOvertime Work Is Not A By-The-Job Matter
Recent reports have described more than one scenario in which an employer violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act because the employer failed to recognize that non-exempt employees' hours worked...
View Article"Right to Know" Back On The Table?
As we speculated in November, the U.S. Labor Department apparently does intend to reinvigorate its so-called "Right to Know" initiative. This vague and ambiguous proposal first surfaced in 2010 but was...
View ArticleUSDOL Provides Enforcement Statistics On FLSA Breastmilk-Break Requirement
The U.S. Labor Department recently responded to our July 2012 Freedom of Information Act request for documents relating to its enforcement of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's Section 7(r)....By:...
View ArticleNo USDOL Response To Request For Worker "Survey"
Readers will recall our January post concerning the U.S. Labor Department's announced intention to "to collect information about employment experiences and workers' knowledge of basic employment laws...
View ArticleRisks Of "Internship" Claims And Liability Still Increasing
We have warned for some time now that businesses and other organizations should think carefully if they are considering the possibility of permitting unpaid internships. What might be described as the...
View ArticleComment Submitted On USDOL's Proposed Worker Survey
As we have been reporting, March 12 was the deadline for submitting comments regarding the U.S. Labor Department's proposal "to collect information about employment experiences and workers' knowledge...
View ArticleWhy Isn't The FLSA Minimum Wage $33 An Hour?
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently asked during a Senate committee hearing why the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's $7.25-per-hour minimum wage has not already increased over time to the...
View ArticleUSDOL Still Barred From Challenging "Service Writer" Exemption
Readers will recall that, in April 2011, the U.S. Labor Department declined to adopt an interpretation proposed in 2008 that would have acknowledged the federal Fair Labor Standards Act overtime-exempt...
View ArticleYou Never Heard Of The "Training Wage"?! (Updated 04/19/13)
Pressure continues to mount for raising the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage in three stages from the current $7.25 per hour to (so far) $10.10 per hour. Under pending proposals, the...
View ArticleQuick Quiz: Day-Rate Pay Plans
The Big Corporation decides that it will start paying its Field Service Technicians on a day-rate basis, instead of on an hourly basis. Under the day-rate plan, a Technician will now receive a fixed...
View ArticleFLSA Famous Last Words . . .
There has always been a great deal of mistaken conventional wisdom afoot where the federal Fair Labor Standards Act is concerned. We have blogged previously about the common misconception that one pay...
View ArticleLabor Letter, June 2013: "Let's Hire An Unpaid Intern," Often A Bad Idea
We’ve warned clients for some time now that businesses and other organizations should think carefully if they are considering the possibility of permitting unpaid internships. What might be described...
View ArticleStill Willing To Have Unpaid Interns?
We have repeatedly cautioned that employers who are prepared to take on unpaid interns should enter into these arrangements with their eyes fully open. New developments emphasize this yet again....By:...
View ArticleCan A Fixed Sum EVER "Include" Overtime Pay?
Our Quick Quiz Answer discussing day-rate plans led one reader to observe that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act does not always bar employers from paying non-exempt employees a fixed sum that...
View Article"But The Employees AGREED To It!"
Our recent "Famous Last Words" post cautioned that having an employee enter into an agreement that is contrary to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's requirements does not trump those...
View ArticleFuzzy Thinking About Fluctuating-Workweek
In 2011, the U.S. Labor Department did its best to discourage the use of fluctuating-workweek pay plans under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. It undertook this in a grab-bag release collectively...
View ArticleUSDOL's "Naughty or Nice?" App
The U.S. Labor Department has signaled for some time now that it considers shame and ostracism to be enforcement tools....By: John E. Thompson
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