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 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, […]
The Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance was adopted at the end of 2014 to much fan fare because it raises the minimum wage requirements for all employees within the City of Chicago. The current rate schedule for minimum wage in Chicago is as follows: Effective Date Non-Tipped Employees Tipped Employees July 1, 2015 $10.00 $4.95 July 1, 2016 […]
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 […]
A group of workers in Birmingham Alabama have challenged a new state law which prohibits local governments, specifically the City of Birmingham, from raising their minimum wages. Birmingham sought to raise its minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by next year in an effort to fight income inequality. Birmingham is about 74% African-American. Plaintiffs assert that […]
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 […]
The Department of Labor has made the decision to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), intending to update sections of the FSLA that deal with wages and overtime, making this the first update to the federal wage law since 2004. According to the DOL, this update to the FSLA is necessary in order to bring federal wage […]
