Wikipedia says that déjà vu is the phenomenon of feeling as though one has lived through the present situation before. Last Friday, a Texas federal judge vacated a U.S. Department of Labor 2024 Rule that raised the minimum salary level to be exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime…
As I write this post on Wednesday night, Hurricane Milton is making landfall in Florida as a category three storm. 1.3 million people are without power, and forecasters warn that Milton could generate a storm surge with inundations of 12-13 feet. Many of you with businesses in Florida will have…
Emphasizing that the Department of Labor has used a minimum salary requirement to help decide who is overtime-eligible, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently determined that the Fair Labor Standards Act authorizes this benchmark. As it had done many times before, the DOL determined in 2019 to raise the minimum…
While monkeying around over the past week or so, I took a break from writing. By now, most of you have heard last week’s news about a Texas federal judge setting aside the FTC’s Noncompete Rule. But on Friday, the Fifth Circuit followed up with a decision vacating a U.S.…
Yesterday, the Department of Labor announced that a Pennsylvania federal court awarded $35.8 million in overtime back wages and liquidated damages to 6,000 current and former workers across fifteen facilities in what it claims to be “one of nation’s largest FLSA judgments.” In its Findings of Fact and Conclusions of…
On July 1, the U.S. Department of Labor increased the salary level nationwide to qualify for certain overtime exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act from $684/week ($35,568/year) to $844/week ($43,888). On January 1, 2025, it will increase again to $1,128 per week or $58,656 per year. Except for the State…
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its 40-year-old decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which had lawyers buzzing and many others wondering what the big deal with Chevron is anyway. I’ll explain. What is Chevron? In Chevron, the Supreme Court had to decide whether the Clean Air Act…
On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to review and establish the burden of proof that employers must satisfy to demonstrate the applicability of an overtime exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Both the petitioning employer and the United States agree that employers must demonstrate that an FLSA exemption applies…
“An employer’s free speech right to comment upon matters that affect the business is firmly established,” noted a Vermont federal judge earlier this month. “But when such commentary is a threat of retaliation … it is without the protection of the First Amendment.” That’s fancy speak for employers can’t use…
Yesterday, several employer groups and associations filed a federal lawsuit in the same court that, in 2017, stymied the U.S. Department of Labor‘s efforts to change the overtime rules by raising the minimum salary level needed to be exempt from receiving overtime. As I’ll explain below, the 2024 plaintiffs have…