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Could Taking on Unpaid Summer Interns Lead to Trouble Under the FLSA?

However, warns Evelyn Gentry, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, there are downsides for employers that use unpaid interns, the most notable being potential violations of the FLSA. Misclassifying employees as unpaid interns, and thereby denying them federal minimum wage and overtime wages can result in costly litigation, civil fines, or both. Furthermore, employers who willfully violate […]

What Can Be Excluded from the ‘Regular Rate’?

Yesterday’s Advisor discussed types of compensation that must be included in the “regular rate” and the subsequent recalculation of overtime that must be done. Today, the five types of compensation that generally do not have to be included in when calculating the “regular rate” of pay, plus news of a timely webinar on pay practices. […]

Disasters: Payroll, Benefits, and Alternative Worksites

Exempt Employees and Disasters Exempt employees are generally paid their normal amount if the workday is shortened. Docking, or reducing pay of exempt employees who are scheduled to work, but who do not because of an emergency, may affect the employees’ status of being exempt from overtime, because, by docking, you are treating them like […]

Bipolar: Disability Requiring Accommodation for Work?

If you have an employee who is bipolar, is that considered to be a disability? Must you provide an accommodation for work? In a CER webinar titled “Bipolar Employees: HR’s Legal and Practical Accommodation Roadmap,” Maureen Duffy, Susan G. Fentin, and Tom Wootton outlined some of the potential frustrations of having a bipolar employee, and […]

Can You Pay Different Hourly Rates for Different Work? (Sure, but …)

Employees who do two different types of tasks may be paid different hourly rates during the workweek. Or, an employee may work in two or more different positions during the same workweek at different rates of pay. But how do you calculate the overtime? The general rule is that all hours worked in all positions […]

Employers Are Likely to Cover Mandates Even if High Court Strikes Health Reform

As you must know by now, regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the federal health care reform, a couple of very large insurers announced they would continue several of health reform’s insurance mandates. The impact of this announcement directly applies to companies that buy full insurance. But self-insured plans and employers big enough […]

2 Big Insurers Pledge to Cover Mandates Even if Health Reform Is Cast Out

Regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the federal health care reform,  Humana and UnitedHealth Group on June 11 announced that they would continue several of health reform’s insurance mandates. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether the “individual mandate” (for everyone to get health insurance or pay a penalty) is unconstitutional, but […]

New NLRB website highlights “protected concerted activity”

by Tammy Binford The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is continuing efforts to broaden its impact on the workforce with the launch of a webpage aimed at communicating to workers how they can use the law in disputes with their employers. The webpage is the latest of several recent NLRB moves that many employers find […]

What Does it Take to Be Successful? Ask an Expert

Oswald, CEO of BLR, offered his thoughts on business success in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. If you want to learn how to throw a great curve ball, Oswald continues, ask someone who throws a wicked curve ball. If you want to know how to bake the perfect chocolate cake, talk to the […]

Hurricanes, Tornados, and Wildfires: Who Gets Paid When You Close?

If a company opens two hours late because of a snowstorm, should an employer pay employees who show up earlier because they didn’t hear the announcement? What time does the workday end when employees are given the option to go home because an incident such as a gas leak forces evacuation of the building? What […]