Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay A company operating an offshore oil rig paid one of its “tool pushers” anywhere from $963 to $1,341 per day. His paycheck, issued every two weeks, amounted to his daily rate times the number of days he had worked in the pay period. So if…
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Field Assistance Bulletin on employee telework is the blogging gift that keeps on giving. Last week, we addressed how to determine whether a remote employee is FMLA-eligible. Today, let’s get when you have to pay nonexempt remote workers for break time. In general, the FLSA…
I like to tell people who will listen to me, which frequently isn’t even my kids, that I can go into most workplaces and sleuth out at least one wage-and-hour violation. The Fair Labor Standards Act, the complex federal wage-and-hour law, contains many hidden traps that ensnare even the most…
I’m hitting this technology theme hard this week. And why shouldn’t I?!? We’ve got a banger edition of The Employer Handbook Zoom Office Happy Hour set for Noon ET on Friday, November 4, 2022. Along with a team of cyber-risk, privacy, and data security attorneys from FisherBroyles, we will present Cybersecurity 101 for HR Professionals…
The Fair Labor Standards Act can present a minefield for even the savviest wage-and-hour gurus. Last night, I read a Pennsylvania federal court decision that helps clarify when employers can (and can’t) adjust employee pay rates. The FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt employees one-and-one-half times their regular pay rate…
The Fair Labor Standards Act makes it unlawful for employers to retaliate against employees who complain about violations of the FLSA. However, I don’t think the drafters of the law considered physical assault as a form of retaliation. But the U.S. Department of Labor is now suing two employers and…
It was bound to happen. Early last year, just before the change in presidential administrations, the U.S. Department of Labor passed a final rule, which amended the regulations interpreting the Fair Labor Standards Act to include some language finally distinguishing independent contractors from employees. I wrote all about it here.…
It depends. Suppose the company is firing the employee for poor performance, which has nothing to do with the underlying lawsuit that someone else filed. In that case, the termination would not violate the Fair Labor Standard Act’s antiretaliation provision, which makes it unlawful to retaliate against an employee for…
Here’s the general rule of thumb when employees receive tips. They get to keep them. As Jon Hyman pointed out in his blog post yesterday at the Ohio Employer Law Blog, there are certain exceptions to that rule, none of which involves sharing employee tips with managers and supervisors. A bunch…
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that an investigation into a Japanese restaurant had uncovered violations of federal wage and hour laws, resulting in 75 servers, sushi, and hibachi chefs not receiving all of their legally earned wages. The final bill was $171,834. That’s a lot of…