The call or visit that no employer wants to receive: a Department of Labor representative asking to look at your payroll records. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) gives the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division...more
7/3/2025
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Liquidated Damages ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Guidance ,
Over-Time ,
Settlement ,
Wage and Hour
How the FLSA “tip credit” is applied has been pushed and pulled numerous times over the last two decades. In the latest volley, the Fifth Circuit entered an order on August 23, 2024, vacating the Department of Labor’s 2021...more
8/29/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Minimum Wage ,
Rate of Pay ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government ,
Tax Credits ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
It is every employer’s nightmare: You find out that employees (or former employees) are claiming that they were not paid properly and are due overtime for the last two or three years. This primarily arises because you...more
Paid leave benefits are a hot topic these days. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has issued an updated report on states that have Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) programs and how they work....more
With the warmer months rolling in and travel rates skyrocketing, it’s likely that many of your employees are taking days away from the office. It may be time to give some attention to your paid time off (PTO) policies and to...more
What is the right way to dismiss a case the parties have settled, and are FLSA cases different? Typically, when parties to a lawsuit settle a case, they merely alert the court of the settlement and then file a stipulation of...more
2/15/2022
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
Settlement ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
As we discussed in April, the Biden administration halted the implementation of some of the Trump administration’s changes to the rules on taking a tip credit for non-tipped work. For those that never have had a server job,...more
7/1/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Comment Period ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Food Service Workers ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Rules ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour
You may have missed it, but Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh perked up some ears last week when he discussed possibly raising the FLSA salary threshold for certain exempt employees. In testimony before a Congressional...more
The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor unveiled a new program, “Essential Workers—Essential Protections,” that focuses on making sure employers comply with overtime and other wage requirements for workers on...more
An Equal Pay Act plaintiff must show that employees of the opposite sex were paid different wages for equal work. Pretty simple — right? However, there are many factors that go into deciding what is “equal work” or whether...more
It was a mess of times. It was the masked of times. We all probably agree that 2020 presented unexpected and unwanted challenges to employers. It certainly made all of us address unprecedented issues. Let’s look back at some...more
12/30/2020
/ Business Closures ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Dress Codes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Financial Stimulus ,
Political Speech ,
Relief Measures ,
Title IX ,
Vaccinations ,
Wage and Hour
In a shocking example of good news these days, the Wage and Hour Division has revised its optional forms that employers can use on various FMLA issues. The new forms can be filled out electronically and have cut down on the...more
In hiring employees, can you just give them a salary bump or must you look at their soon-to-be coworkers to decide the correct amount? This is a hotly debated issue right now, and, as with many things, it depends on where you...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
With companies try to keep employees safe but still conduct business while the coronavirus flattens out, employers should be mindful of their obligations to employees while working off-site.
Non-exempt Hourly Employees...more
The Department of Labor recently issued a final rule about how to calculate an employee’s regular rate of pay for overtime purposes under the Fair Labor Standards Act. As everyone knows, under the FLSA you have to pay...more
1/13/2020
/ Compensation & Benefits ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Labor Regulations ,
New Rules ,
Over-Time ,
Rate of Pay ,
Wage and Hour
Here’s to hoping all our readers have a great New Year’s, but do not forget that the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is changing the threshold amount of salary necessary to meet the numerous overtime exemptions....more
Yesterday, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued a final rule regarding the threshold amount of salary necessary to exempt an employer from the obligation to pay overtime. The threshold since 2004 was $455...more
9/25/2019
/ Bonuses ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Incentive Compensation ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Sometimes employment laws can make the common person’s head spin. That certainly could be the case for a recent Fifth Circuit opinion examining the “highly compensated” regulatory exemption from the overtime requirements of...more
9/5/2019
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Independent Contractors ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Summary Judgment ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
When is sleeping working? According to a recent DOL Opinion Letter, probably not when it occurs off duty in a sleeper berth of an over-the-road truck.
A trucker’s job is to haul a load from Point A to Point B, which often...more
We’ve posted on this topic several times before but the battle between independent contractors and employees continues.
Here’s a brief refresher on the basics of why proper classification of employees as independent...more
6/19/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
If you see your waiter or waitress grumbling during the holiday season, it could be due to the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division’s revision of the rules dealing with minimum pay due to “tipped” employees. Under the FLSA and...more
12/12/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
When do you have to pay an employee before a shift? In Llorca v. Sheriff (Collier County, Florida), the Eleventh Circuit waded into the rich history of what types of pre-shift activities might qualify for hourly compensation....more
On January 5, 2018, the Department of Labor announced two employer-friendly changes applicable to interns and volunteers. Specifically, the DOL has adopted an employer-friendly approach to internships and has reinstated a...more
1/30/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internships ,
Misclassification ,
Primary Beneficiary Test ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Unpaid Interns ,
Volunteers ,
Wage and Hour
Determining when an unpaid intern is really an employee has been a moving target for the last several years. However, on January 5, 2018, the Department of Labor announced that its Wage and Hour Division will now use the...more
1/10/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Internships ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Primary Beneficiary Test ,
Unpaid Interns ,
Wage and Hour