The Seventh Circuit has joined the Fifth and Sixth Circuits in establishing a higher bar for employees to clear before courts may authorize “notice” to potential members of an FLSA collective action. Although the Seventh...more
8/8/2025
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Burden-Shifting ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Class Members ,
Collective Actions ,
Discovery ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Notice Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
Class Certification Recipe Needs More Flavor: The Fourth Circuit tossed out a class certification order for Bojangles’ shift managers, citing a high level of generality in identifying common policies and overly broad class...more
12/23/2024
/ Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Class Members ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
FRCP 23 ,
Job Descriptions ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Off-The-Clock ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
A federal district judge has vacated the U.S. DOL’s 2024 rulemaking increasing the minimum salary employers must pay to exempt executive, administrative, and professional employees. That minimum now reverts to an annualized...more
11/19/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Labor Reform ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Vacated ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Seyfarth Synopsis: As reported by Seyfarth, the Fifth Circuit’s January 2021 decision in Swales v. KLLM Transport Services, LLC and the Sixth Circuit’s May 2023 decision in Clark v. A&L Homecare and Training Center, et al....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: While reversing a grant of summary judgment in favor of an employer based on the de minimis doctrine, the Ninth Circuit held that the doctrine still can apply under the FLSA....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: While reversing a grant of summary judgment in favor of an employer based on the de minimis doctrine, the Ninth Circuit held that the doctrine still can apply under the FLSA....more
A new piece of legislation introduced in Congress, if enacted, would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to establish 32-hour workweek for non-exempt employees, with no loss in pay. While the bill is unlikely to gain steam, it...more
3/22/2024
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
Wage and hour litigation and enforcement actions continued as a hot-button concern in 2023, as plaintiffs’ lawyers advanced novel and creative claims and Supreme Court and appellate-level battles took place over long-accepted...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employers frequently struggle with questions around the compensability of certain activities, classification of employees, and how to structure their policies to avoid Fair Labor Standards Act violations. ...more
10/26/2023
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Doffing ,
Donning ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: A federal district court held that “boot-up” and “shut-down” time in a call-center environment is de minimis and therefore not compensable....more
Seyfarth Synopsis. Businesses familiar with FLSA litigation are aware of the frustrating ease with which some courts have turned single-plaintiff cases into large-scale collective action proceedings. But the tides are...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The DOL has issued guidance to its staff – that might be relied upon by courts – that any break less than 20 minutes while working from home is compensable time, regardless of the reason for the break....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 4, 2023, the Biden Administration announced the release of its Fall 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. In connection with the Administration’s new regulatory agenda, the...more
Employers have had to quickly pivot in numerous ways to keep their workplaces operating since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. One such way the workplace changed is through the introduction of COVID-19 screening tests for...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Today the U.S. Department of Labor issued its draft new interpretive regulation (or NPRM) attempting to define employee versus independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The NPRM...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On June 21, 2022, the Biden Administration announced the release of its Spring 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. In connection with the Administration’s new regulatory agenda, the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On December 10, 2021, the White House and U.S. Department of Labor confirmed their plan to propose new rules to increase the salary threshold for exempt employees under the FLSA and “modernize” the...more
The much-anticipated OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (“OSHA”) COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) posted this morning, November 4, 2021, for public inspection. The ETS...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Last week, the U.S. DOL issued a final rule limiting use of the FLSA’s tip credit for tipped employees who sometimes perform non-tipped work. Declining a more flexible approach advocated by many employers...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Since the Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court, federal district courts around the country have wrestled with whether they may exercise personal jurisdiction over...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: If the gist of a proposed regulation is made final, the 80/20 rule will be back, and with a vengeance. Employers who take a tip credit for their tipped employees will have to ensure that those employees...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: After delaying the effective date of a finalized Trump-era interpretive regulation that would have brought much needed clarity to the definition of employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the DOL...more
In this excerpt from our FLSA Handbook, we provide a is a “Sample Job Assessment Questionnaire Form” which is useful for reviewing exempt classification. The Handbook’s appendices contain two sets of guidelines to support the...more
Because exempt misclassification issues are among those more prominently revealed during Wage-Hour Division investigations and are often the focus of costly litigation, this chapter of our FLSA Handbook explains the most...more
In this chapter of our FLSA Handbook, we provide an overview of measures that an employer can take to comply with state and federal wage and hour laws. We also provide an outline to assist employers in structuring their own...more