Risk Prevention Strategies: Avoiding Costly FLSA Missteps
What Should I Do If My Employer Failed to Pay Me Wages?
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, violations of overtime or minimum wage requirements can result in assessment of liquidated damages equal to the amount of unpaid wages. ...more
On June 27, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued new field assistance indicating it will no longer seek liquidated damages in administrative matters against employers for unpaid minimum...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) recently brought suit against East Pennsylvania Manufacturing (East Penn) under the Fair Labor Standard Acts (FLSA) for allegedly failing to pay thousands of employees for time they spent...more
There is something interesting about watching an old, beloved show for the first time years after the release of its final season. You miss the excitement of watching new episodes contemporaneously with other fans....more
On August 16, 2024, a divided Seventh Circuit panel held that a court needs to establish personal jurisdiction over each individual member of a Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) collective, further contributing to an existing...more
A hotel manager was recently held individually liable for violations of federal wage and hour law under a broad definition of “employer.” Although the ruling applied to a unique set of facts – including that the manager was...more
I have blogged about these automatic deduction cases, but they nevertheless keep popping up with disturbing regularity. In another example of this phenomenon, employees have sued a Michigan healthcare employer, alleging...more
It seems every week another call center case pops up. These are extremely dangerous cases for employers and that is why I keep writing (or, harping) about them, as a warning to employers, not only those who operate call...more
On January 3, 2024, the defendant in Heppard v. Dunham’s Athleisure Corporation filed an interlocutory appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, arguing that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District...more
It’s the fourth quarter. Three seconds are left on the clock, and your team is losing by one point. Your place kicker confidently trots onto the field to attempt the game-winning field goal. As he does, the TV announcer says,...more
Nearly a decade ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued three decisions clarifying and tightening the standard for asserting plausible overtime claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in the...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
In Perry et al. v. City of New York, the Second Circuit upheld a large jury verdict in favor of a collective of workers regarding off-the-clock work. In doing so, the Court reaffirmed the principle that employers will...more
For decades, the Department of Labor (DOL) has recognized the impracticability of requiring Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) nonexempt employees to clock in exactly at the beginning of their scheduled shifts. In most...more
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provides a process by which an employee or a small group of employees can sue for unpaid wages, often in the form of overtime, and can also claim to be representing all others “similarly...more
The recent seizure and shutdown of two prominent regional banks – Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank – highlights for employers the issues that an unexpected liquidity crisis may bring. And, it’s not just banking...more
In the wake of the recent news of bank failures, businesses—and their investors—are rightly concerned about the implications of a missed or delayed payroll. Let’s look at those implications, and strategies for minimizing...more
Federal and state wage and hour litigation has been an area of concentration for Industrial/Organizational Psychologists for decades. These cases address alleged discrimination in wage-based employment practices such as...more
For years, many employers have used the practice of time-clock rounding. This is a practice of rounding time entries by employees to the nearest five-minute, six-minute, or 15-minute interval. This practice is lawful under...more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that time spent booting up computers for call center employees at the beginning of their shift is integral and indispensable to their work and thus compensable under federal...more
I do a lot of wage hour defense and one of the threats I constantly come up against is a Department of Labor telling me that the owner of the Company or corporate officers will be held personally liable for unpaid wages if...more
On October 24, 2022, the Sixth District issued a decision in in Camp v. Home Depot, handing employees a major win in the wage and hour arena by holding that Home Depot’s practice of rounding hourly employees’ total daily...more
It is every employer’s worst nightmare: an unsuspecting employee receives an email in the early morning from an individual claiming to be his supervisor. The email asks him to follow up on an urgent work assignment that needs...more
MASSACHUSETTS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT RULING – GOOD NEWS FOR EMPLOYERS - It has been a busy Spring for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC). On April 14, 2022, on the heels of Reuter v. City of Methuen (see our...more
In a stunningly broad ruling that should send shivers down the spine of every home healthcare agency that uses an independent contractor workforce, a Florida federal court ruled on April 12 that a home healthcare worker who...more