The Employer Handbook

Articles Posted in Overtime

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I remember the time that the U.S. Department of Labor showed up unannounced to the Bloggerdome.

It was yesterday. And, I’m pretty sure that the five-year-old ratted me out for paying my other three kids in Cheerios for installing a marble driveway. The driveway was a birthday gift I gave to myself.

(I turn 43 today.)

But, lesson learned. And even though this never really happened, I feel your pain, friends. I know how difficult it can be to comply with wage and hour laws. Continue reading

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Before all the Facebook creepiness, pukey-poopy emojis, and gushing over my awesome law firm, I foreshadowed some changes from the U.S. Department of Labor to the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime rules.

Yesterday, the DOL put a ring on it and made it official. Continue reading

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Remember that f**king fire drill?

Back in 2016, the United States Department of Labor proposed a rule that would have made millions of workers eligible to earn overtime for the first time by raising the salary-level that exempts certain individuals from overtime eligibility under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

And employers panicked. Many businesses converted salaried employees to hourly. Others got raises. Some received both. It was a mess. The only happy people were the employment lawyers.

But, then a federal judge in Texas entered a nationwide injunction against the proposed DOL rule, and everything went away, except those raises and pay changes that you could exactly stuff back into the tube of toothpaste.

Welcome to Round Two

Continue reading

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Copyright Free – Stock Free images. Public Domain image dedication. CC0 1.0 Universal Licence – http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

For nearly ten years, from September 1, 1997 through July 23, 2007, the federal minimum wage was $5.15 per hour. Three times in the following two years, the minimum wage rose, settling in at $7.25 per hour on July 24, 2009. The minimum wage has remained $7.25 since then.

That might change soon. Continue reading

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By Mikamote [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Generally, if a wage and hour dispute arises in the workplace, the parties need approval from either the U.S. Department of Labor or a federal court to resolve claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

When parties agree to resolve these claims as part of litigation, two things often happen:

  1. A court must approve the settlement; and
  2. The settlement agreement becomes public; i.e., no confidentiality.

Recently, Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr. and the other parties to an FLSA action requested that a New York federal court relax the publicity rules by creating a “celebrity exception.”

Oh, you don’t know Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr.?

That’s Busta Rhymes!

Continue reading

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Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor did more for employers than just revamp its internship test.

It re-issued a slew of opinion letters to help employers with sticky wage-and-hour issues. I’ve highlighted a few of the more notable ones below.

[Fair warning: We get kinda wonky by the end] Continue reading

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If an employer violates the Fair Labor Standards Act, like by not paying overtime, the plaintiff(s) can generally recover two years of unpaid overtime for the two years preceding the lawsuit. Those plaintiffs may also recover liquidated damages equal to the unpaid overtime.

So, if an employer owes $100 in overtime, the total bill with liquidated damages would be $200.

However, if the employer willfully violates the FLSA, then the damages increase. That’s because the lookback period for a willful violation becomes three years.

But, what makes a violation willful? Yesterday, the Third Circuit helped answer that question. Continue reading

“Doing What’s Right – Not Just What’s Legal”