Wage and Hour Law Update : Wage & Hour Lawyer & Attorney : Jackson Lewis Law Firm : Minimum Wage, Overtime & Service Contracts

The following report is sent to us from Richard I. Greenberg and Felice B. Ekelman

The New York Department of Labor’s 2009 Restaurant and Hotel Industry Wage Board has submitted its Report and Recommendations to consolidate the individual wage orders for the restaurant and hotel industries into a single Hospitality Industry Wage Order.  Commissioner of Labor M. Patricia Smith had convened the Wage Board to recommend changes in the wage and hour regulations that govern restaurant and hotel industry workers following recent modifications to wage rates, gratuities and allowances emanating from the latest increase to the New York minimum wage (see New York Employers Subject to Modified Wage Orders Effective Immediately.

If approved, the September 21, 2009 Wage Board Report and Recommendations would implement many significant changes to existing restaurant and hotel wage orders.  Some of these recommendations are summarized after the jump.

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In today’s Wall Street Journal, Melanie Trottman notes that the U.S. Department of Labor has started shifting its focus towards what has long been assumed would be the case:

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has spent her first few months in office focusing on handing out $46 billion in stimulus money. Now, her department is adding staff and signaling it will soon begin putting in practice the more assertive regulation of business she promised early in her tenure.

Ms. Solis has begun hiring 670 new investigators to enforce labor regulations.

Among the new hires will be some 250 additional enforcement personnel in the Department’s Wage and Hour Division, an increase of 33%. 

The Department's more aggressive enforcement stance, coupled with an increased number of investigators, places employers of all sizes in jeopardy. 

Employers should review their practices and policies now to address possible wage and hour violations in advance of a federal investigation. Investigations by WHD can lead to the payment of back wages, liquidated (double) damages, civil monetary penalties, and, in the case of government contracts, can also lead to debarment from future government contracts. 

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In today's Employment Law 360 (subscription required), Jackson Lewis partner and leader of the Firm's Wage and Hour Practice Group offered his thoughts on a variety of wage and hour-related topics, including what he sees as the next wave of wage and hour cases:

These days, the plaintiffs’ bar is very focused on uncompensated increments of time, particularly at the start and end of the workday. Tip credit cases are big following [Fast v. Applebee's].

Independent contractor misclassification will continue to be a point of emphasis for DOL as well as the private bar. Most employers are out of compliance, and the best plaintiffs’ lawyers are always on the look-out for violations affecting a sizeable number of workers that can make a class or collective action viable.

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