The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the federal wage and hour law that protects all covered workers from substandard wages and oppressive working hours by requiring that employers pay employees minimum wage and overtime when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek.
Determining who counts as an employee is a fact-specific. The ultimate determination turns on the “economic reality” of the relationship between the parties involved.
Federal law requires most companies to pay minimum wage and overtime pay for employees unless they qualify for an exemption. Employees generally must meet certain tests regarding their job duties and get a salary of at least $684 per week, which works out to just $35,568 per year.
But a new overtime reform bill introduced earlier this week in both the House and the Senate aims to boost that salary level yearly until 2027 to make it much easier for salaried American workers to be overtime eligible. Continue reading
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 their owner. They allegedly responded to an employee’s request for his paycheck by beating him up, which resulted in a trip to the emergency room. Continue reading
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 toro and high-end sake. Continue reading
Always wait at least one hour before swimming after a large meal. That big brown shark in the swimming pool isn’t always a Baby Ruth. Hold the cue stick properly. Chalk up before each shot. These are solid (and mildly off-putting) pool tips.
But let’s talk about tip pools instead. Continue reading
In case you missed President Biden’s State of the Union Address last night, I’ve got you covered with everything HR compliance that came up. Continue reading
Gary J. Wood, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Do you have tipped employees? Continue reading
Image by analogicus from Pixabay
Common sense dictates that, as human beings, we refrain from certain activities. For example, neither cuddling with a porcupine nor housebreaking a skunk are good ideas. You don’t need a lawyer to tell you that. Continue reading
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Last week, I shared with you eight ways that President Biden changed employment law on Day One. It took me a while to cobble together that post. So, I was kind of hoping that “46” would take a few days off or something so that I could unwind in the blogcuzzi without worrying about any new Biden/HR content for this week.
No such luck. Continue reading
The Employer Handbook Blog