Many people confuse or do not fully understand how overtime pay works, often making who is and who is not eligible to receive overtime pay the biggest confusion of them all. And, since overtime laws are set by the U.S. Department of Labor, requiring that employees meet a certain set of requirements to qualify, it is critical that employees understand where […]
Wage theft is a common workplace issue that is increasingly becoming a problem for employees all over the country. Wage theft may occur when an employee does not receive all of their wages or any wages at all. Recognizing Wage Theft Not paying employees correctly maybe a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA establishes a Federal […]
On January 20, Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. While the new administration’s policies are unclear on a wide range of issues, his comments during the campaign provide some hints on positions he will take with regard to labor and employment law. At the outset, we can assume that they […]
December 1, 2016 was supposed to be the day that about 4 million Americans were set to qualify for overtime pay under a new federal rule by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The new overtime law would have doubled the annual salary threshold from $23,660, to $47,476, which determines who qualifies for overtime pay when they work over […]
Effective December 1, 2016, the Department of Labor is enacting a new overtime law in which the Fair Labor Standards Act is being changed, allowing the threshold annual income below which overtime pay is required (assuming all other requirements for overtime pay are satisfied) to rise to $47,500, compared to $23,660, which was the amount […]
On October 19, 2016, we posted a blog about the Chicago Minimum Wage law which became effective July 1, 2015, with an hourly wage of $10.00, increased to $10.50 July 1, 2016, and continues to increase incrementally each year into the future. The Chicago law also imposes very substantial penalties on employers who violate it, […]
Epic Systems Corporation, a healthcare software company in Wisconsin thought it could prevent its employees from suing to recover alleged failure to pay overtime by a simple arbitration agreement. Epic required its employees, on pain of losing their jobs, to agree that any wage-and-hour claims would be settled only by individual arbitration and that such claims could not be pursued in a […]
While the updated salary requirements to be exempt from overtime are receiving all the headlines there were other important changes that will go into [WHEN] effect. One of those changes is a new rule that allows an employer to count non-discretionary payments towards the new $47,476.00 salary threshold. The rule caps this amount at [THE LESSER OF/GREATER […]
In this case, a contract Human Resources firm (you would think they would get this stuff right) believed that by raising its employees salaries high enough it exempted them from the FLSA and its overtime provisions. The result of this misreading of the law was a $1 million dollar settlement to pay back wages to […]
On March 30, 2015, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision which determined that mandatory overtime was an essential job function – confirming the dismissal of a disability discrimination claim. You can read the opinion here. In 2012, the plaintiff provided a note requesting a lifting restriction of no-more than 15 pounds. The employer reassigned her to […]
