The Department of Labor (DOL) just rolled back a Biden-era practice of demanding that employers pay liquidated damages – in an amount equal to back pay – to resolve wage and hour investigations. The Trump administration...more
7/3/2025
/ Back Pay ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Field Assistance Bulletins ,
Investigations ,
Liquidated Damages ,
New Guidance ,
Popular ,
Statutory Authority ,
Wage & Hour Division (WHD) ,
Wage and Hour
Many employers in hospitality and other service industries take the tip credit toward their minimum wage obligation under federal wage and hour law – but complying with evolving rules has been challenging in recent years....more
If you take the tip credit for employees that receive gratuities, you’ll want to review your policies and practices in light of Monday’s game-changing announcement from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The Department...more
A federal appeals court just delivered some good news to hospitality employers by blocking the Department of Labor’s infamous 80/20/30 rule, providing immediate relief to employers around the country by vacating the...more
8/26/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage & Hour Division (WHD) ,
Wage and Hour
As the AI revolution takes hold, employers are hiring for jobs we never imagined just a few years ago. This may leave you in the dark when trying to figure out if your new hires, including Prompt Engineers, will truly meet...more
8/19/2024
/ Administrative Exemption ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Descriptions ,
Job Duties ,
Machine Learning ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Wage and Hour
Many restaurants utilize tip pools to encourage teamwork, consistency, and customer-focused service – but you may be confused about who can and can’t participate in the pool. You feel confident that your servers and...more
5/17/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Hotel staff often include a mix of tipped and non-tipped jobs, but following wage and hour rules isn’t always easy, particularly if employees perform a variety of tasks. Some workers — such as servers and bartenders — may...more
9/13/2023
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Minimum Wage ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage & Hour Division (WHD) ,
Wage and Hour
Employers may need to adjust their pay practices now that the Labor Department has issued its long-anticipated proposal to raise the salary threshold for exempt employees – a change that could make more of your employees...more
A federal court just refused to block the U.S. Department of Labor’s infamous 80/20 rule, which applies to employers that take the tip credit toward their minimum wage obligation under federal wage and hour law – which means...more
High-earning workers making more than $200,000 a year might be eligible for overtime pay thanks to a new Supreme Court ruling yesterday morning. The decision is a wake-up call for all employers to review their OT exemptions...more
Imagine this scenario: You pay an employee a substantial daily rate — which works out to more than $200,000 a year. Still, the employee claims they’re entitled to overtime pay because they were paid a daily — rather than...more
Employers may be shocked to learn that a supervisor who earns $200,000 a year could be entitled to overtime pay, but the Supreme Court might very well decide you could be on the hook for such payments in the near future....more
Laying any doubt to rest that employers would miss out on the chance to enjoy a business-friendly interpretation of the standard to determine joint employment status, a federal appeals court on Friday put the final nail in...more
Striking another blow against the Trump-era joint employer rule that briefly created a new and more business-friendly standard to wage and hour compliance, the Department of Labor today proposed rescinding the rule...more
In a move sure to frustrate employers and usher in a wave of confusion, a New York federal court judge just struck down critical portions of the Labor Department’s new joint employer rule that went into effect a few months...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) just released a Wage and Hour Opinion Letter yesterday addressing the fluctuating workweek, reiterating its position that an employee’s work hours do not need to fluctuate above and below...more
The U.S. Department of Labor’s final regulations addressing the FLSA’s fluctuating workweek (FWW) method reminded us that (1) legal principles control and (2) illustrative examples merely demonstrate application. The agency...more
The U.S. Department of Labor just finalized its rule that attempts to limit the scope of joint employment liability for wage and hour matters. Although much remains to be seen, this rule may usher in a new era, and could lead...more
1/14/2020
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Regulations ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Rules ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
For the last several months, we have all been eagerly awaiting USDOL’s final “Overtime Rule” – to hopefully finally put to bed the confusion that has filled the air for nearly three years. As of Tuesday, the suspense is over...more
9/26/2019
/ Bonuses ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Incentive Compensation ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
The Labor Department is busy.
Yes, that is a stand-alone paragraph. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the “Overtime Rule” was published on March 22, 2019, followed shortly thereafter by proposals regarding regular rate...more
The U.S. Department of Labor just became the latest federal agency to propose a rule to limit the scope of joint employment liability, this time for wage and hour matters. If the rule released earlier yesterday is adopted in...more
4/2/2019
/ Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Comment Period ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA) ,
NLRB ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
On February 15, the U.S. Department of Labor struck another nail into the coffin of the infamous “20% Rule,” the agency’s prior enforcement position which purported to limit an employer’s ability to take the federal Fair...more
2/19/2019
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Field Operations Manual ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Job Duties ,
Minimum Wage ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced, via a regulatory agenda, that the proposed regulations implementing changes to the minimum salary for the white-collar exemptions, now commonly referred to as the “overtime rule”,...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
9/17/2018
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Background Checks ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
Collective Action Waivers ,
Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (CCRAA) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Failed Legislation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Freedom of Religion ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Baker ,
Governor Brown ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA) ,
Licenses ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
OFCCP ,
Opinion Letter ,
Opioid ,
Over-Time ,
Pay Gap ,
Pending Legislation ,
Portable Benefits ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Ridesharing ,
Right to Work ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Union Dues ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Injury
Last month, the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) Wage and Hour Division announced that it would hold public listening sessions, inviting members of the public to comment on the FLSA's white-collar exemptions....more