Joining decisions from other parts of the country, a California federal judge has held that former cosmetology and “hair design” students were not “employees” under the Fair Labor Standards Act or the wage-and-hour laws of California and Nevada entitled to minimum wage. Benjamin v. B & H Education, Inc., et al., 2015 U.S.

This month, two New York federal judges reviewing a claim of misclassification rejected a claim for overtime compensation, agreeing that a business properly classified two translators as independent contractors rather than as “employees” under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law. See Mateo v. Universal Language Corp., 2015 U.S. Dist.

In prior posts, we have summarized the New York State Department of Labor’s most recent rulemaking processes, comprised of two separate wage boards. The first, in 2014, addressed the hospitality industry as a whole, while more recently, in 2015, another highly publicized wage board addressed the subset of that industry deemed “fast food.” Employers should

In accordance with the Ninth Circuit and several other federal court rulings, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit yesterday held that an employee cannot bring a claim for wages based on allegedly misappropriated gratuities under the FLSA unless the employer used the tip credit set forth in 29 U.S.C. § 203(m). Trejo

As with the recent uptick in state and municipal paid leave laws, employers in multiple jurisdictions now find themselves faced with a similar national bandwagon in favor of increased state and municipal minimum wage requirements, highlighted by the Los Angeles City Council’s recent decision to ratify a proposal moving that City’s minimum wage to

In an op/ed piece appearing in yesterday’s New York Times, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he would direct the Commissioner of Labor to convene a new Wage Board “to examine the minimum wage in the fast-food industry” in New York state. The Commissioner’s announcement follows on the heels of a separate op/ed suggesting