The Fair Labor Standards Act can present a minefield for even the savviest wage-and-hour gurus. Last night, I read a Pennsylvania federal court decision that helps clarify when employers can (and can’t) adjust employee pay rates. The FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt employees one-and-one-half times their regular pay rate…
The Fair Labor Standards Act makes it unlawful for employers to retaliate against employees who complain about violations of the FLSA. However, I don’t think the drafters of the law considered physical assault as a form of retaliation. But the U.S. Department of Labor is now suing two employers and…
It was bound to happen. Early last year, just before the change in presidential administrations, the U.S. Department of Labor passed a final rule, which amended the regulations interpreting the Fair Labor Standards Act to include some language finally distinguishing independent contractors from employees. I wrote all about it here.…
It depends. Suppose the company is firing the employee for poor performance, which has nothing to do with the underlying lawsuit that someone else filed. In that case, the termination would not violate the Fair Labor Standard Act’s antiretaliation provision, which makes it unlawful to retaliate against an employee for…
Here’s the general rule of thumb when employees receive tips. They get to keep them. As Jon Hyman pointed out in his blog post yesterday at the Ohio Employer Law Blog, there are certain exceptions to that rule, none of which involves sharing employee tips with managers and supervisors. A bunch…
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that an investigation into a Japanese restaurant had uncovered violations of federal wage and hour laws, resulting in 75 servers, sushi, and hibachi chefs not receiving all of their legally earned wages. The final bill was $171,834. That’s a lot of…
https://youtu.be/rFeVfwDvTyM Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced here that its investigation into the bounced payroll checks of 10 construction workers renovating a nursing home found that the employer who issued the bad checks had also denied more than 800 workers overtime wages by misclassifying…
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a series of August events highlighting the importance of maternal health and workplace protections for expectant and new mothers to mark National Breastfeeding Month. On Aug. 10, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. EDT, the department’s Wage and Hour Division and Women’s Bureau and the U.S.…
Folks, someday, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) may darken your door to audit your books and records. Perhaps, they’ll find a violation and require you to pay back wages and liquidated damages. If your next steps involve retaliating against employees who cooperate with investigators and…
Has anyone ever sued your business for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act? This federal law requires covered employers to pay minimum wage and overtime at time-and-a-half when employees work more than 40 hours in a workweek. They can be expensive to defend — even the ones that aren’t collective…