When an employee is terminated, often due to a reduction in force, an employer may offer a severance agreement. While employers are not required to offer severance to employees (unless there is an agreement to do so), it is usually in the company’s interest to get a release. Because the employee is often giving […]
Federal Overtime Law Blocked
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 […]
Appeals Court Deals Mandatory Arbitration a Huge Blow—Or Does 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 […]
Employers Can Make Up to 10% of Salary with Nondiscretionary Payments under the new FLSA Overtime Rules
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 […]
White Collar Exemption Salary Requirement More Than Doubled
The three White Collar Exemptions are by far the most common asserted by employers to avoid paying overtime. If an employer wants the apply the exemption to any employee, it must show that it pays the employee paid a minimum salary, and that the employee meets the particular duties test. The most common duties tests are as follows: […]
HR Firm Agrees to Pay $1 Million in Back Wages: Being Paid A Salary Does Not Exempt You From Overtime
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 […]
Exempt Employees And The Federal Overtime Law
What Is An Exempt Employee? Most employers are required to pay their employees overtime, according to federal and state laws, however, these laws often times contain exceptions, meaning that some employees are not qualified to receive overtime pay and are considered “exempt” employees. Businesses that have more than $500,000 in sales each year or is considered […]
What Is Wage Theft?
This common workplace issue is increasingly becoming a problem for employees everywhere. Wage theft may occur when an employee does not receive the incorrect pay or may not be receiving their pay at all. No matter the situation, there is something that can be done about it. What Is Wage Theft? Wage theft is defined as the […]
Are You A Victim Of Wage Theft?
Wage theft has once only thought to be something that affects low-wage service employees. This workplace issue, however, has now become a common issue for working Americans everywhere. Wage theft can mean that an employee is not receiving the correct wages, not receiving their overtime pay, or even not receiving their pay at all. Understanding Wage […]
Do I Need An Employment Attorney?
Employment attorneys specialize in representing employees in contract negotiations, as well as workplace violations. These violations may be issues such as workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, overtime or wage theft, as well as civil rights violations. While most people will not need the assistance of an employment attorney, there may be some occasions in which you may need […]