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 […]
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 […]
Every employee hopes for a bonus at Christmas time. But terminations are also common. Is it because the company is looking to avoid the Christmas bonus? Is it because the company is simply trying to reduce staff before the end of the year? For whatever reason, we see a slight uptrend in terminations at this […]
In January of 2015, we discussed non-compete agreements here. In that article we explained that a non-compete agreement, like any other contract must be supported by “consideration” — that is to say that the employee must receive some benefit for signing a non-compete agreement. Otherwise, the non-compete agreement is invalid and unenforceable. (This is separate and […]
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an employee has 180 days from the date of a discriminatory act to file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. That 180 days is expanded to 300 days in those states which have their own Human Rights Act. But Title VII is not the only law against race […]
The Supreme Court is currently reviewing whether to accept a case out of California that found that service advisors or parts advisors are not exempt from the FLSA and are therefore entitled to overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek. This decision Navarro et al. v. Encino Motorcars, LLC – was in stark contrast with […]
Illinois (as well as California and D.C.) requires that an “employer must grant an employee leave of up to a total of 8 hours during any school year, no more than 4 hours of which may be taken on any given day, to attend school conferences or classroom activities related to the employee’s child if […]
