FLSA Intern Class Conditionally Certified In Hearst Lawsuit
As we reported earlier, a former Harper's Bazaar unpaid intern is pursuing a lawsuit against publisher The Hearst Corporation in which she claims (among other things) to have been an "employee" under...
View ArticleAll-Out Campaign Underway To Raise FLSA's Minimum Wage
We have previously reported on legislation introduced earlier this year to increase the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage. In the last several days, supporters have commenced a...
View ArticleLimited "Insurance Adjuster" Exemption Proposed
Recently introduced legislation proposes to exempt "any employee employed in insurance claims adjusting" from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime requirements under certain circumstances....
View ArticleAppellate Court Enforces Private FLSA Settlement (Updated 01/07/13)
The longstanding general view has been that wage claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act may be reliably settled only:♦ Under the U.S. Labor Department's supervision, or♦ Upon the...
View ArticleShould You Use Online Exemption "Advisors" Or Checklists?
Various websites now provide questionnaires, checklists, programs, decision-trees, and so on to guide an employer in trying to decide who qualifies as an exempt executive, administrative, professional,...
View ArticleFLSA Questions In Wake Of Hurricane Isaac
Recurring wage-hour issues tend to arise during the recovery from a natural disaster. We posted the following item last year in connection with Hurricane Irene, and the points are equally relevant...
View ArticleEnforcement Push Coming On "Service Writers", "Service Advisors"?
Readers will recall our April 2011 newsletter and blog post regarding the U.S. Labor Department's having declined to recognize the overtime-exempt status of vehicle-dealership employees typically...
View ArticleIndependent Contractor Challenges Aren't Going Away
For at least three years now, the U.S. Labor Department and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (along with a host of analogous state and local agencies) have been on the alert for instances in which...
View ArticleBeware Draconian USDOL Settlement Terms
The scope of potential punishments in federal Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits brought by the U.S. Labor Department apparently is being limited only by the imaginations of its lawyers. A recent...
View Article"Fissured Industry" Enforcement Initiative Continues
Readers will recall that, in 2010, the U.S. Labor Department announced that it would pay particular attention to multi-party business arrangements that it sees as obscuring or diluting responsibility...
View ArticleQuick Quiz: Overtime For Multi-Rate Employees
Sarah is paid $15 an hour for work as a delivery driver, and $12 an hour for inventory-checking work in the warehouse. In a particular workweek, she works her first 40 hours as a driver, performs five...
View ArticleQuick Quiz Answer: Overtime For Multi-Rate Employees
The best answer to our October 8 Quick Quiz is, "Either Of The Above". There are two permissible ways to approach Sarah's overtime compensation under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. In declining...
View ArticleCourt Upholds Employer's Overtime-Reducing Workweek Change
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (with jurisdiction over Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota) has re-affirmed that the federal Fair Labor...
View ArticleMore Challenges From Hurricane Sandy: Wage-Hour Issues And Related Matters
In thinking-through and implementing their recovery plans in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, employers will want to review our August post summarizing a number of federal Fair Labor Standards Act issues...
View ArticleThe Post-Election Wage-Hour Landscape
Now that the election is behind us, employers should consider what they might anticipate in the field of wage-hour law, which is already one of the largest sources of employment-law claims. While the...
View ArticleREMINDER: Holiday "Volunteer" Services Might Be FLSA Employment
Volunteerism is again on the upswing as the holiday season enters its most-intense period. Businesses and other organizations should reacquaint themselves with the principles summarized in our...
View ArticleIs It OK To "Round" An Employee's Worktime?
For many years, some employers have chosen to "round" non-exempt employees' time entries in computing their wages. News items in recent days have reported on a California appellate court's ruling in...
View ArticleA Recent Off-The-Clock Case Should Not Breed Complacency
It might sometimes seem from the parade of headline-grabbing, employee-favoring court decisions that employers are destined to lose in so-called "off-the-clock" cases under the federal Fair Labor...
View ArticleInput Might Still Be Possible On Proposed "Companionship" Restrictions...
Readers will recall our earlier posts (accessible here) relating to the U.S. Labor Department's proposed regulatory revisions that would significantly limit the application of the federal Fair Labor...
View ArticleOvertime Work Is Not A By-The-Job Matter
Recent reports have described more than one scenario in which an employer violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act because the employer failed to recognize that non-exempt employees' hours worked...
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