A multi-year dispute over unpaid wages went from bad to a whole lot worse for a Midwest business owner when he decided to appeal a trial court ruling that he owed over $300k in wages, damages, and attorney’s fees by representing himself and hiring an “online consultant” who used artificial intelligence to prepare an appellate brief. Continue reading
It’s not like I woke up in a cold sweat, fixated on this obscure bit of Fair Labor Standards Act minutiae.
But I did read this Eleventh Circuit decision last night, which did posit whether “Julie Andrews’s Mary Poppins, Martin Lawrence’s Big Momma, Fran Drescher’s Nanny Fine, Robin Williams’s Mrs. Doubtfire, or Vin Diesel’s Shane Wolfe…would have been entitled to overtime pay in the real world.”
So, let’s find out. Continue reading
It took less than a week for a group of freelance writers and editors to file this federal court lawsuit to block enforcement of the U.S. Department of Labor’s new independent contractor rules, which I wrote about here last week.
If you thought the DOL’s final rule would sail through without a fight, think again. Continue reading
Employment lawyers often quip that they could walk into a workplace and spot at least one violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal law governing the payment of overtime pay at not less than time and one-half the regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek. Continue reading
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “federal wage and hour investigators have seen corrupt employers try all kinds of scams to shortchange workers and to intimidate or retaliate against employees, but a northern California restaurant’s attempt to use an alleged priest to get employees to admit workplace ‘sins’ may be among the most shameless.”
Me? I haven’t seen anything this sacrilegious since Homer ate a god waffle that Marge dislodged from the Simpsons’ ceiling. Continue reading
Here’s the general rule of thumb when employees receive tips.
Continue reading
What I’m about to share with you today will never become a Hollywood blockbuster. Actually, it’s so dull that I would sell it over the counter as a holistic sleep aid if I could bottle it.
Ambien’s got nothing on wage-and-hour minutiae.
United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
While not quite as outrageous as slavery, ignorance, or misogyny, today’s edition of “Don’t Do This” will apply most practically to readers of this blog. Continue reading
The Employer Handbook Blog