As President-elect Joe Biden selects members of his Cabinet and prepares for his transition into the presidency, he and a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives may pursue a number of significant pieces of federal workplace legislation. Many of these employment law measures successfully passed the House in 2019 and 2020. And, with the … Continue Reading
Continuing the practice it reinstituted during the current administration, on August 31, 2020 the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage Hour Division (WHD) issued four new Opinion Letters, addressing a variety of topics. That brings the total to 57 Opinion Letters issued since 2018, including the re-publication of 17 Opinion Letters withdrawn during the Obama … Continue Reading
Continuing the practice it reinstituted about two years ago, on March 26, 2020 the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage Hour Division (WHD) issued three new opinion letters, each revolving around the “regular rate” that is used when calculating any overtime pay due to non-exempt employees for work performed in excess of 40 hours in a … Continue Reading
In a welcome reversal of its prior guidance, on July 22, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) concluded that if a truck driver, or driver’s assistant or helper, is completely relieved of duty and is provided with adequate sleeping facilities (including the truck’s sleeping berth), the individual is not “working while riding” and therefore … Continue Reading
Citing the interest expressed by “law firms, unions, and advocacy organizations, among others,” the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has extended the period for public comment on recently-issued Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding amendments to the regulations concerning determination of the “regular rate” of pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and to … Continue Reading
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a new proposed rule that intends to raise the annual minimum salary requirements for the FLSA’s “white collar” (executive, administrative, and professional) overtime exemptions to $35,308 ($679 per week), up from the current annual minimum of $23,660 ($455 per week). A full discussion of this … Continue Reading
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a new proposed rule raising the salary level requirements for the white collar exemptions. A full article discussing the proposed rule will be published later but here is what you need to know now: The new standard salary level will be $35,308 annually ($679 per week). This is … Continue Reading
Last November, the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) issued Opinion Letter FLSA2018-27, rescinding the so-called “80/20” Tip Credit Rule, a provision that during the last decade had spawned a cottage industry of “80/20” cases. These cases sought to dissect the duties of a server between those that allegedly generated tips and those that did … Continue Reading
The DOL’s new overtime rule, intended to replace the rule announced late in the Obama administration but subsequently declared invalid by a federal court, finally has made, or soon will make its way, to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a division of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bloomberg Law has … Continue Reading
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) today rescinded its prior guidance that made the tip credit unavailable for tipped employees who spend more than 20% of their time performing allegedly non-tip generating duties. The 20% limitation, contained in an internal DOL Field Operations Handbook, spawned numerous so-called “80/20” lawsuits, claiming servers spent too much time performing allegedly non-tipped … Continue Reading
Focusing on education to ensure compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, on August 28, 2018 Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta announced the creation of the DOL’s new Office of Compliance Initiatives (OCI). That office has launched two new websites, one to provide employers with resources to assess wage and hour compliance, and the other to … Continue Reading
In furtherance of a practice reinstituted earlier this year, on August 28, 2018 the DOL’s Wage Hour Division (WHD) issued four new opinion letters covering FLSA topics. The current administration began that practice when, in January of this year, it reinstated seventeen opinion letters originally issued during the George W. Bush administration but subsequently withdrawn … Continue Reading
The Restaurant Law Center, a public policy affiliate of the National Restaurant Association, has filed suit against the Department of Labor and its Wage and Hour Division, seeking to declare unlawful the DOL’s 2012 revision to its Field Operations Handbook, purporting to establish, through sub-regulatory guidance, the “80/20” tip credit rule or “20% Rule.” Restaurant … Continue Reading
(Updated 4/12/2018) Last month, the DOL announced the Payroll Audit Independent Determination program (“PAID”), a self-auditing program designed to encourage employers to uncover and voluntarily report potential minimum wage and overtime violations and avoid the risk of penalties or liquidated damages that would be imposed if the Agency discovered the violations in the first instance. … Continue Reading
This week the Department of Labor issued new guidance, in a “Field Assistance Bulletin,” on the recent amendment to the FLSA regarding tip sharing. The recent amendment to the FLSA (which was included in the omnibus budget bill) bars “supervisors or managers” from retaining tips but expressly allows tipped workers to share tips with non-tipped … Continue Reading
Mistakes happen. But when those mistakes result in a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, what is an employer to do? Pay twice the amount of wages owed to cover both back wages and an amount equal to liquidated damages? Hope no one notices? Well, thanks to the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of … Continue Reading
The U.S. Department of Labor confirmed on October 30, 2017 that it intends to “undertake new rulemaking with regard to overtime.” While the DOL simultaneously filed an appeal of the district court order holding the prior overtime rule invalid, the DOL stated it intends to request that the Fifth Circuit “hold the appeal in abeyance … Continue Reading
In recent years, one significant issue that has plagued industries employing tipped employees is whether the employers must ensure that tipped employees retain all of their tips even if the company is not using the employee’s tips to satisfy part of the minimum wage pursuant to the FLSA’s “tip credit” provision, 29 U.S.C. § 203(m). … Continue Reading
Today the Trump Administration, through the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, released the federal government’s semi-annual Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. This agenda provides public notice of the regulatory actions the various agencies of the Executive Branch anticipate taking in the coming year. Among the items listed … Continue Reading
The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that it will reinstate the Department’s long-standing practice of issuing opinion letters to employers and employees regarding application of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Obama Administration eliminated opinion letters in favor of broader “Administrator Interpretations,” but those were few and far between. “The letters were a division … Continue Reading
The New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) has appealed the Industrial Board of Appeals decision that invalidated and revoked final regulations issued by the NYSDOL which would have significantly restricted the use of payroll debit cards and imposed new disclosure and consent requirements for direct deposit. The regulations (12 NYCRR §192) were to become … Continue Reading
The Fifth Circuit granted the government’s request for additional time to file its final reply brief in the pending appeal of a nationwide injunction issued by a Texas District Court Judge, blocking the DOL’s controversial overtime rule raising the required salary level for the white collar exemptions. The final reply brief will not be filed … Continue Reading
The government has asked for another delay in submitting its final brief to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the DOL’s Final overtime rule, which raised the salary level for the white collar exemptions from $23,660 to $47,476. The final reply brief was scheduled to be filed on May 1, 2017, after two earlier … Continue Reading
An online ticket broker that sells tickets to concerts, sporting events, and the theater qualifies as a “retail or service establishment” under Section 207(i) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), Judge John Lee of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois held. Blahnik v. Box Office Ticket Sales, LLC, 2017 … Continue Reading
