Tag: wages

DOL’s proposed rules to swell ranks of overtime-eligible employees

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) release of new proposed rules regulating who is eligible for overtime pay has employers scrambling to determine how many of their workers will need to be reclassified when new regulations take effect. Currently, the salary threshold for an employee to be exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) […]

Will a Smartphone Call Count as Overtime? DOL Is Exploring the FLSA Issues

Smartphone use has complicated employer calculations of working time and overtime for years, and it now appears to have caught the interest of the U.S. Department of Labor, which recently announced plans to collect information on how the use of smartphones impacts hours worked under the Fair Labor Standards Act. In its spring 2015 regulatory […]

Would You Consider Restricting Hours Worked?

Employers know that there are legal restrictions in terms of the number of hours a nonexempt employee can work before incurring overtime pay. There are also restrictions on the hours a minor can work. And for safety reasons, there are restrictions on the number of consecutive hours medical residents and truck drivers can work.

Supreme Court Won’t Address FLSA Pleading Standard

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to resolve a purported split among the federal appellate courts about the content required for a successful Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals addressed the issue most recently, holding that employees must allege specific facts in FLSA complaints; workers cannot merely restate potential […]

Fast-food strikes, NLRB policies take center stage

A day after the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) controversial “quickie election” rule took effect, low-wage workers across the country took to the streets in an effort to boost their pay and join unions. The Fight for $15 campaign, supported by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), set April 15 as the date for the […]

McDonald’s joins Wal-Mart in boosting wages

The wage and benefit increases McDonald’s announced on April 1 put the fast-food giant on the same path retailer Wal-Mart took in February when it announced an increase in its starting wage. McDonald’s announced that beginning July 1, it will raise starting pay at company-owned restaurants to $1 over the locally mandated minimum wage. Full- […]

Be Wary of Employee Pay Deductions—They Can Cost You!

Do you believe that deducting from an employee’s wages can be done at an employer’s discretion? Not so fast! The law scrutinizes pay deductions very carefully, and it’s not as cut and dried as you might think. Attorney Ted Boehm has the facts when it comes to pay deductions.