Wage and Hour

Employment Law Blog Carnival – Pick Your Holiday Edition

April 17, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

The third week of April ushers in several holidays: Passover, Good Friday, Easter.

But no matter what your religion or god — even a sacrilicious ceiling waffle — we can all agree that the Employment Law Blog Carnival, which you can find this month at Tim Eavenson’s blog: Current Employment, is the workplace glory.

This month, Tim has more posts about HR-compliance than you can count on your ten fingers. So raise your hands up to the sky and shout Hosanna! The power of the #ELBC compels you!

What are employers doing about employees who do their taxes — at work!?!

April 15, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Today is tax day, or, as I like to call it, sonofa—!

Actually, I get a nice refund this year. I guess that’s what happens when you have four kids under five. Which reminds me, I should ask, do any of you babysit? Because I have Verizon Fios and a jar of Marshmallow Fluff to sweeten the offer.

What? Where was I?

3d Cir. on FLSA successor-in-interest liability. Or, as I like to put it, “No Blog Hits” Day

April 4, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

I was on such a roll this week.

You guys were digging the heck out of my peeing in the breakroom post, David Crosby the alcoholic, and the one about a supervisor offering cash to sleep with an employee’s wife.

You know who even read that last one? Scan down to the blog comments. Yep, that’s a comment from the plaintiff himself. OMG!!!

What is it exactly that President Obama wants to do to the FLSA?

March 14, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Thumbnail image for obama.jpeg So, by now, you’ve likely read the news, first reported on Wednesday night by The New York Times reporters Michael Shear and Steven Greenhouse that “Obama Will Seek Broad Expansion of Overtime Pay”.

Messrs. Shear and Greenhouse indicated that, yesterday, President Barack Obama was to the direct the U.S. Department of Labor to “revamp its regulations to require overtime pay for several million additional fast-food managers, loan officers, computer technicians and others whom many businesses currently classify as ‘executive or professional’ employees to avoid paying them overtime.”

Possible targeted changes to the FLSA

CHEATSHEET: How to pay employees for Daylight Savings Time work

March 5, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Yesterday, I read this post from Sara Hutchins Jodka at Employer Law Report about how to pay employees for Daylight Savings Time work and comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Then I ate a big bowl of pulled pork and I thought to myself, “Damn, I’m feeling lazy tonight! With the bazillion posts that I’ve published — and for which none of my freeloading readers have ever offered to pay — there must be a Daylight Savings FLSA post I can recycle.”

…and

3 minor leaguers claim Major League Baseball violated the Fair Labor Standards Act

February 14, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

When you think of minor league baseball, you may draw on movies like Bull Durham or The Rookie; long bus trips from stadium to stadium where teams play in front of small crowds for small pay.

Well, apparently, the pay may be small enough to trigger a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act

As pitchers and catchers being to report for Spring Training, Craig Calcaterra at NBC Sports HardBall Talk reports here that three minor league baseball players have initiated a putative class action in federal court against Major League Baseball, among others. In the Complaint (copy here), the plaintiffs allege violations of the FLSA stemming from the failure to pay minimum wage and overtime for working more than 40 hours per week.

The Supreme Court on FLSA, donning, doffing, and Daft Punk!

January 28, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

If there’s one thing I know from my blog stats, it’s that no one clicks on my posts about ~~you’ll never believe what Justin Bieber did now!~~ the Fair Labor Standards Act.

If there was only some way that I could jazz them up to attract readers.~~Miley Cyrus is engaged to who?~~

Maybe the facts of yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision discussing ~~Kim Kardashian’s latest piercing~~ FLSA “donning and doffing” are sexy enough on their own.

GUEST POST: Flexible Work Location for FLSA-Exempt Employees

January 8, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Today, we have a guest blogger at The Employer Handbook. It’s Johanna Harris. Johanna has been a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Labor and in-house labor counsel for two multinational corporations. She is currently the CEO of Hire Fire and Retire LLC. Her new book, USE PROTECTION: An Employee’s Guide to Advancement in the Workplace, is a basic primer on HR law and personnel policies.

Flexible work arrangements take many forms. Arranging flexible hours and schedules can be fairly straightforward and is often dictated by business needs. Flexibility of work location, however, is more difficult to manage. After the jump, this guest post addresses the issues raised by allowing employees to work at locations other than their assigned offices.

(Want to guest blog on an employment-law topic at The Employer Handbook? Email me).

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A general manager may have to pay his employer’s wage-and-hour debts

December 27, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Earlier this month, in this post, I highlighted a Pennsylvania federal court opinion recognizing that the Fair Labor Standards Act definition of “employer” is broad enough to bestow personal liability for a company’s wage-and-hour debts upon its President/CEO.

Well, how about a general manager that has zero ownership interest in the company? Could he too be personally responsible if his company fails to pay minimum wage or overtime?

According to a recent decision from an Illinois federal court, there answer is yes:

Your President/CEO may have to pay your company’s wage and hour debts herself

December 13, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Well, that certainly sucks. Even worse than the time I found out that Santa Claus MacGyver wasn’t a real person.

(My psychiatrist says that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m not so sure…)

But seriously, I thought that the purpose of a limited liability company was to insulate members from the debts of the company.

After the jump, see how that rule doesn’t necessarily apply when an LLC fails to pay minimum wage or overtime…