Image Credit: Photofunia.com
Who is still breathing a sigh of relief that the proposed U.S. Department of Labor overtime rules never took effect?
Not so fast Pennslyvania employers.
You may want to take a deep breath and start clutching your pearls. Continue reading
Image Credit: Photofunia.com
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
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
Yesterday, a Texas federal judge killed ’em dead. Continue reading
A few years back, some progressive (?) restaurants around the country made headlines by paying their waitstaff more than minimum wage and putting the kibosh on customer tips.
This broke with the traditional way of paying customarily-tipped employees in scratch offs and iced animal crackers. That is, most employers would pay the minimum-required cash wage of $2.13 under the Fair Labor Standards Act (unless your state requires a higher minimum wage) and use customer tips as a credit against the $7.25/hr. minimum wage obligation to the employee. This is known as, you guessed it, the tip credit. Continue reading
I see your lawsuit and raise you a contempt motion!
(It sounded baller in my head. But, seeing it in print, not so much.)
Although that .gif…
Continue reading
Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor asked for public comment on how to refresh the existing overtime rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Since it’s Monday, your eyes are probably bleary from all that’s been written about the DOL overtime rules, and it’s Monday, allow me to spoon feed you the latest… Continue reading
It all began last week with a (possible) typographical error in a tweet from our 45th President, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.”
At first, President Trump’s tweet confused us; “covfefe” even stumped a spelling bee champ while creating a spike in demand for novelty license plates.
But then President Trump doubled down on Twitter, “Who can figure out the true meaning of “covfefe” ??? Enjoy!” Well, his Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, told reporters, “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.”
Folks, you’re in luck! As part of that small group of people, I know exactly what President Trump met. You see, “covfefe” is the solution to all of your HR-compliance problems.
So, I’m calling you know what on Senator Warren’s tweet last week.
Yes, the U.S. House of Representatives did greenlight a measure called the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017. This bill would allow, in certain situations, the substitution of comp time for overtime. And, if it passes through the Senate, the President is likely going to sign it.
But unlike the scare posts from other publications, which suggest that the sky will fall if the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017 becomes law, I’ll explain why this law is good for employers and employees. Continue reading
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