Reviving a security guard’s claim for overtime pay, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently reiterated that employers may not pay employees an artificially low regular rate of pay to avoid paying the proper amount of overtime. Thompson v. Regions Sec. Servs., Inc., 67 F.4th 1301 (11th Cir. 2023). The Eleventh Circuit oversees the
Regular Rate
Bonuses Prompted by Federal Tax Reform and Pay for Charitable Volunteer Time Were Properly Excluded From Employees’ Overtime Calculation, Fourth Circuit Holds
By Caitlin Goforth on
Posted in Regular Rate, Wage and Hour
Affirming the dismissal of wage and hour claims against “big box” retailer Lowe’s, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that company bonuses, provided to employees following 2018 revisions to federal tax law, were rightly excluded from the “regular rate” used to calculate overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Fourth Circuit…
DOL Issues Opinion Letters Regarding Pay Calculations for Teleworkers, In-Home Caregivers
By Jeffrey W. Brecher & Justin R. Barnes on
On the last day of 2020, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) ushered out the year with two new Opinion Letters. These may be the final two Opinion Letters of the Trump Administration and perhaps the last two for a while, depending on whether the Biden Administration continues the…
DOL Issues New Opinion Letters Revolving Around the FLSA’s “Regular Rate”
By Gillian G. W. Egan on
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…
DOL Extends Comment Periods for Proposed Joint Employer and Regular Rate Regulations
By Jeffrey W. Brecher on
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…
When an FLSA Blended Rate Improperly Acts as a Regular Rate: A Case in Point
By Tony H. McGrath on
Posted in Regular Rate, Wage and Hour
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) generally requires employers to pay non-exempt employees overtime pay at one and one-half times their “regular rate” of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a given workweek. The regular rate is the result of a math equation: The employee’s total compensation (with a few defined exceptions) paid…
Oklahoma Federal Court Finds Expense Reimbursement Need Not Be “Rolled In” To Overtime Calculation
By Noel P. Tripp on
Posted in Regular Rate, Uncategorized
Fixed payments made on other than an hourly basis to non-exempt (i.e., overtime eligible) workers often must be included in the regular rate of pay for purposes of calculating overtime. One type of payment that may be excluded from the regular rate calculation is payment for “reasonable payments for travel expenses, or other…
Missouri Court Analyzes, Upholds Employer’s Use Of Fluctuating Workweek Method Of Overtime Payment
By Noel P. Tripp on
Posted in Regular Rate
One method of computing overtime payments under the FLSA is the “fluctuating workweek” method. The Department of Labor’s interpretive bulletin, 29 C.F.R. § 778.114, sets forth this example of determining the regular rate of pay when an employee is paid a salary for all hours worked in a workweek, whether few or many. Because the…
New York Federal Court Upholds Payment of Overtime Pursuant to Fluctuating Workweek Method Notwithstanding Bonus Pay
By Noel P. Tripp on
Uncertainty and litigation have ensued in the wake of the Department of Labor’s May 5, 2011 Final Rule regarding application of the fluctuating workweek method of overtime compensation (FWW) authorized by 29 CFR § 778.114, specifically the Rule’s commentary on the payment of incentive compensation to employees compensated via FWW. In a thorough recent decision,…
Georgia Judge Rejects Novel Assertion of Section 1981 Discrimination Claim Based on Failure to Pay Immigration Visa Rate to US Workers
By Noel P. Tripp on
Posted in Damages, Regular Rate
"As the season for sweet onions ends, another onion farm labor dispute begins," observes Judge B. Avant Edenfield of the Southern District of Georgia in a new opinion, commenting upon the flurry of FLSA lawsuits filed in recent years in the American Southeast arising out of labor conditions at large farming concerns utilizing immigrant workers. Judge…