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To be “administratively” exempt from overtime, in addition to being paid appropriately on a  salary or fee basis, an employee must perform office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of his or her employer, with a primary duty which includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with…

Demoralized by the attendant costs of litigation and a shifting compliance environment in numerous jurisdictions, many hospitality industry employers have resolved wage-and-hour lawsuits brought in New York City and elsewhere over the last number of years.  Bucking this trend, one such employer recently successfully defended its wage practices at trial.  Mendez v. Int’l Food House…

In the still unresolved FLSA litigation concerning alleged unpaid overtime brought by a former personal assistant to entertainer Stefani Germanotta a/k/a Lady Gaga, Judge Paul Gardephe of the Southern District of New York has issued a lengthy ruling addressing some of the asserted claims and defenses. The Court concluded that plaintiff’s New York state law claims …

In a decision sure to attract attention within the New York hospitality industry, Judge Alison J. Nathan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in a case of first impression that deducting the full amount of service fees charged by internet food delivery sites (including popular web…

In the latest chapter in the ongoing intern battles currently being waged in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Harold Baer rejected plaintiffs’ novel assertion of unlawful wage deductions. Wang v. Hearst Corp., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3768 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 9, 2013). The Wang litigation concerns the applicability…

As previously discussed, last March the Supreme Court ruled that the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provision protects “informal” complaints, i.e., unwritten complaints alleging violation of the FLSA are protected activity to support a retaliation complaint.  Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., No. 09-834 (Mar. 22, 2011). However, the Court declined to resolve the open issue of…

One commonly held misconception in wage-and-hour law is that all investment professionals in the financial industry are categorically exempt from overtime pay. In a decision contrary to such assumption, Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York recently denied summary judgment to a boutique investment bank as to the exempt status of a financial…