By John E. Thompson
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, recently asked during a Senate committee hearing why the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s $7.25-per-hour minimum wage has not already increased over time to the level of $22 an hour.
A professor appearing at the hearing opined that a case could be made for a current rate of $33 an hour.
So why isn’t the FLSA minimum wage more than 450 percent higher than it is today? Read more…
By John E. Thompson
We have warned for some time now that businesses and other organizations should think carefully if they are considering the possibility of permitting unpaid internships.
What might be described as the internship “season” is fast-approaching, so the time to consider whether and under what circumstances to get involved in these relationships is now. Read more…
By John E. Thompson
As we speculated in November, the U.S. Department of Labor apparently does intend to reinvigorate its so-called “Right to Know” initiative.
This vague and ambiguous proposal first surfaced in 2010 but was eventually shelved. The Labor Department has now announced its intention to conduct a survey “to collect information about employment experiences and workers’ knowledge of basic employment laws and rules so as to better understand employees’ experience with worker misclassification.” Read more…
By John E. Thompson
Recent reports have described more than one scenario in which an employer violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act because the employer failed to recognize that non-exempt employees’ hours worked over 40 were overtime ones.
The employees had performed their work in more than one position during the week, such that their time spent in any particular job did not exceed 40 hours. However, an employee’s hours worked in all of the positions in which he or she was engaged for the employer in the week totaled more than 40. Read more…
By John E. Thompson
For many years, some employers have chosen to “round” non-exempt employees’ time entries in computing their wages.
News items in recent days have reported on a California appellate court’s ruling in See’s Candy Shops, Inc. v. Superior Court and Silva that a properly administered “rounding” practice does not violate California wage-hour law.
This is of course good news for California employers, and to some extent for employers across the nation (See’s Candy is not binding precedent outside of California or under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act). Nevertheless, management should not take it as a foregone conclusion that “rounding” worktime is beyond dispute in every situation. Read more…
By John E. Thompson
Volunteerism is again on the upswing as the holiday season enters its most-intense period.
Businesses and other organizations should reacquaint themselves with the principles we summarized in our November 2011 post cautioning that some “volunteers” or “volunteer” activities just might be subject to the requirements of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Read more…
By John E. Thompson
Now that the election is behind us, employers should consider what they might anticipate in the field of wage-hour law, which is already one of the largest sources of employment-law claims.
While the nature and number of the possible developments are practically unlimited, some of the foreseeable ones include these:
By John E. Thompson
In thinking-through and implementing their recovery plans in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, employers will want to review our August post summarizing a number of federal Fair Labor Standards Act issues that typically arise following a natural disaster.
Readers will recall our typical reminder that the requirements and limitations of other laws must also be taken into account. This is especially important where Sandy’s impact is concerned, because the laws and regulations of some jurisdictions in the hardest-hit areas are often different and/or much tougher on employers than the FLSA is. Read more…
By John E. Thompson
Readers will recall that, in 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that it would pay particular attention to multi-party business arrangements that it sees as obscuring or diluting responsibility for complying with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
The Labor Department’s “fissured industry” enforcement effort seeks to tie together all of the participants, including subcontractors, vendors, suppliers, and the like.
Recent developments underscore that the Wage and Hour Division is indeed looking for opportunities to assert that different entities are sufficiently integrated with one another to make each participating business a joint-employer. The Division is also making good on its warning that it would “bring pressure to bear” upon brand owners to induce them to insist upon and monitor FLSA compliance by others with whom they share a business relationship. Read more…
By John E. Thompson
The scope of potential punishments in federal Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits brought by the U.S. Department of Labor apparently is being limited only by the imaginations of its lawyers.
A recent consent judgment against an operator of residential-care facilities for developmentally disabled adults suggests that employers should not be surprised by unorthodox Labor Department settlement demands.
The court order recently agreed to in Solis v. Jasmine Hall Care Homes contained terms requiring the defendants to pay $850,000, to comply with the FLSA in the future, to accept particular interpretations of relevant FLSA principles, and to produce upon demand whatever documents the U.S. Department of Labor decides to “request.” These provisions are within the reasonable parameters of FLSA enforcement. Read more…
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