Pennsylvania

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Frustrated by years of unsuccessful efforts to raise the minimum wage through the state’s Republican-controlled legislature, and in response to the recent federal court invalidation of the Obama-era DOL’s rule that would have doubled the minimum salary requirement for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions (i.e. the “white collar” exemptions) under the FLSA, Pennsylvania…

Full coverage of Philadelphia’s new Wage Theft Law – providing a separate new private right of action for violations of the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law or the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act occurring in, or based on an “employment contract” made within, the city – is available here.  The Law also creates the…

Time spent by employees in meal and other breaks continues to prompt litigation against public and private sector employers. In a recent decision, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that corrections officers at a Pennsylvania prison failed to allege a violation of the FLSA by challenging the County’s failure to compensate them…

Trenton, New Jersey, like numerous other municipalities (especially in New Jersey), recently enacted its own paid sick leave law. As with Seattle’s recent minimum wage rulemaking, a coalition of New Jersey business groups challenged the city’s authority to do so, urging that the ordinance exceeded the city’s police powers and offended constitutional protections. New…

On February 12, Mayor Michael Nutter signed a bill requiring Philadelphia employers with 10 or more employees to offer paid sick leave, joining neighbors New York City and Newark, New Jersey, as well as other states and localities, in enacting such a requirement.  The Philadelphia bill takes effect in mid-May, and requires that eligible…

Hospitals and other medical service providers continue to face waves of wage-and-hour claims concerning meal break practices, with non-exempt care providers alleging that they were unable to take unpaid meal periods, or that those meal periods were otherwise compensable.  A new decision from Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania rejects…

In a short order following oral argument, Judge Juan R. Sanchez of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied an FLSA defendant’s motion for summary judgment seeking a ruling that it properly classified its delivery couriers as independent contractors under the FLSA.  Spellman, et al. v. American Eagle Express, Inc., E.D. Pa., No. 10-cv-1764.

In so…

As discussed here, Pennsylvania’s legislature recently amended its state wage payment law to conform to the FLSA’s so called “8/80” rule for hospitals and other healthcare entities, which permits payment of an overtime premium on a bi-weekly or 80-hour basis provided that such premium is also paid for hours worked in excess of eight…

In a positive development for Pennsylvania healthcare employers, on July 5, 2012, Governor Corbett signed into state law an amendment to the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act (“PMWA”), allowing hospitals and other healthcare employers in Pennsylvania to utilize the “8/80” overtime rule established by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) See 29 U.S.C. § 203(j).  …