Three years after employers began preparing to raise salary thresholds for employees to qualify as exempt from overtime pay requirements, the time may have finally arrived. On March 22, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published the “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees” Proposed Rule in Read more
Taking note of employer concerns, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released some preliminary guidance on its new PAID program, a six-month pilot initative intended to quickly resolve accidental wage and hour violations outside of the courtroom and help employers improve pay practices to avoid similar mistakes in the future. In a question-and-answer format, Read more
The federal appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018, which was signed into law on March 23, brought an end to uncertainty on two fronts: it put a stop to the short-term spending bills that have been keeping the government afloat since the end of fiscal year 2017, and it created a fix for the tip Read more
On December 04, 2017 the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing its decision to rescind controversial regulations which restrict an employer’s use of employee tips regardless of whether he pays the full federal minimum wage. The move comes as no surprise since the agency announced this move as Read more
Just six months after increasing the penalties for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the U.S. Department of Labor has announced another adjustment to the penalties for FLSA violations. The first adjustment was made last August pursuant to the Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (Inflation Adjustment Act). The Inflation Read more
Last month the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which entitles non-exempt employees to overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40, does not allow employers to offset unpaid overtime with paid meal breaks. The plaintiffs in the case of Smiley v. E.L. DuPont de Nemours Read more
Minimum Wage Two important announcements regarding federal contractors came from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in September. First, on September 20, 2016, the DOL published a notice that the minimum wage for employees working on certain government contracts will increase to $10.20 per hour beginning January 1, 2017, pursuant to Executive Order 13658, Establishing Read more
Many home care workers will now be entitled to the federal minimum wage and overtime pay protections that apply to most US workers. The US Department of Labor (DOL) has announced that the Final Rule making the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) applicable to direct care workers has survived the final legal hurdle that stalled Read more
Last week, President Obama signed a memorandum directing the US Secretary of Labor to begin the process of updating the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) overtime rules to better fit today’s economy. Under the FLSA, workers who are paid hourly wages or who earn below a certain salary threshold are generally protected by minimum wage Read more
Tipped employees largely work in the restaurant, hospitality and service industries and they regularly receive tips in the performance of their jobs. Their employers, however, sometimes find it challenging to ensure they meet minimum wage rate requirements, handle the “tip credit” properly and help tipped workers understand their pay. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act Read more
