California Employment News: CA Local Minimum Wage Updates
Understanding the New Overtime Tax Policies in the Big Beautiful Bill
Is the Four-Day Workweek Really a Benefit? What’s the Tea in L&E?
Constangy Clips Ep. 11 - Summer Interns and Short-Term Workers: 3 Tips for Managing Seasonal Hires
Daily Compliance News: May 15, 2025, The Downfall in Davos Edition
Daily Compliance News: May 14, 2025, The Widened Whistleblower Program Edition
(Podcast) California Employment News: Back to the Basics of Employee Pay Days
California Employment News: Back to the Basics of Employee Pay Days
The Evolution of Equal Pay: Lessons From 9 to 5 — Hiring to Firing Podcast
Insider Strategies for Wage and Hour Compliance Success: One-on-One with Paul DeCamp
(Podcast) California Employment News: Breaking Down Los Angeles’ Fair Work Week Ordinance
California Employment News: Breaking Down Los Angeles’ Fair Work Week Ordinance
Keeping Up with Exemption Threshold Regulations
Are Overtime Wages and Tips Exempt From Income Tax? What Employers Need to Know to Prepare
Excessive Compensation: What to do when the co-owners of your business pay themselves excessively
California Employment News: Document Checklist for Departing Employees (Podcast)
California Employment News: Document Checklist for Departing Employees
OK at Work: Navigating Snow Days, Office Closures, and Remote Work Planning
Employment Law Now VIII-157 - Top 5 L&E Issues to Watch in 2025
Updated Leave Laws Employers Need to be Aware of for 2025
Healthcare entities have faced increasing pressure from the Department of Labor regarding wage and hour issues. Some of this is a hangover from COVID and the long hours many healthcare workers endured trying to meet the needs...more
The Illinois Supreme Court held employers violate overtime law by not including non-discretionary bonus payments when calculating employees’ overtime rate. The case is Mercado v. S&C Electric Co., 2025 IL 129526 (Jan. 24,...more
California wage and hour law is never so confusing as during the holiday season. Beyond making sure that employees receive their paychecks on time, employers must correctly determine the “regular rate of pay" so that they can...more
As the final quarter of 2024 begins, many employers are turning to the year-end review process. While you’re planning for raises, bonuses, and other employee incentives this comp season, you’ll need to account for the new...more
Many employers are planning to reclassify employees to non-exempt status now that the Labor Department is significantly raising the salary threshold for employees to be exempt from overtime pay. You likely know that...more
As we wind down 2023, your company may be sharing with its employees either through business closing periods or end-of-the-year bonuses. Employers must be cognizant that these generous gestures may carry compliance...more
In the wake of the pandemic, some employers — opting for the carrot over the stick — have started offering weekly attendance bonuses to incentivize a return to the office. We have recently seen an uptick in employee-filed...more
On August 30, 2023, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a proposed rule regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime exemptions, most notably increasing the standard salary threshold for the so-called “white...more
I read an interesting post by Frank Shuster of Constangy, Brooks, Smith on the thorny and often misunderstood issue of the “regular rate” and what that concept entails for compliance with the FLSA. Many employers,...more
In a pro-employer decision addressing the overlap of federal and California wage and hour law, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District upheld summary adjudication for the employer, finding that the...more
When the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division published a Final Rule on the regular rate in late 2019, it gave employers the freedom to more easily offer perks and benefits to their employees without running afoul...more
It is black letter FLSA canon that a promised bonus, such as a production bonus, or longevity bonus, must be included in the regular rate of employees who work overtime for the period of time covered by the bonus. This maxim...more
Over the years, we have periodically published EmployNews articles on the impact of bonuses or other incentive compensation on the regular rate used to calculate overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)....more
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that non-exempt employees be paid no less than time and one-half their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek. How should an employer calculate an...more
What employers often miss when calculating proper overtime is that they must include in the regular rate different kinds of supplemental payments that non-exempt people receive. If they do not, they are not paying properly. ...more
I have blogged many times about cases where relatively small amounts of compensation, bonus type compensation, are not included when an employer calculates the regular rate for overtime and a class action ensues. Now, this is...more
Affirming the dismissal of wage and hour claims against “big box” retailer Lowe’s, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that company bonuses, provided to employees following 2018 revisions to federal tax law, were...more
With the end of the year just around the corner, many employers may be contemplating giving year-end bonuses to their non-exempt employees. And bonuses, year-end or otherwise, can create problems for employers when it comes...more
In a case of first impression for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a Fifth Circuit panel has ruled that it is the employee, not the employer, who has the burden to establish that bonus payments are non-discretionary and,...more
I have often blogged about the thorny issue of bonuses under the FLSA and when those bonuses must be included in the regular rate of employees for overtime purposes. The crucial test is whether the bonus is discretionary,...more
One of the most frequently violated provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act involves the effect of bonuses or other incentive compensation on the rate used to calculate overtime. For non-exempt employees, the employer must...more
The US Department of Labor (DOL) published a Final Rule on June 8 confirming that paying bonuses, commissions, and other incentive-based pay to salaried, nonexempt employees does not disqualify employers from using the...more
For almost 80 years, it has been the law that an overtime-eligible employee whose hours fluctuate from week to week and who agrees to receive a fixed weekly salary covering all hours of work is entitled to a halftime premium...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a final rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) expressly authorizing employers to offer bonuses, hazard pay, and other premiums to employees whose hours, and regular rate...more
As the nation’s political leaders discuss the easing of the various shelter-in-place orders in an effort to re-start the economy, businesses have begun making their own re-start plans – and they often include bonus programs...more