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Five wage and hour goodies for your business. Trust me. This won’t be weird at all.

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You know that dream?

The one where the U.S. Department of Labor shows up on a Sunday to conduct a surprise wage-and-hour audit of your workplace, all the company payroll records have gone missing, and you’re in your underwear.

No? Oh, me neither.

But, just in case you know someone who suffers from the occasional FLSA/FMLA doldrums, I have for you today a little pick-me-up.

First things first, Kevin Stawicki at Law360 reports here (you’ll need a subscription to access the article, or you can take my word on what it says) that “[n]ew U.S. Department of Labor regulations that would let employers exclude certain bonuses and nonwage jobs perks when calculating workers’ overtime pay are on the verge of being finalized now that the White House Office of Management and Budget has received the final rule.” I’ve blogged here previously about this proposal. And here is an old DOL press release about it. Prediction: This will be very good for employers that provide non-exempt employees with benefits and bonuses.

Now, how about some wage-and-hour opinion letters to further brighten your day?

I’ve got three of them:

  • FMLA2019-3-A: Addressing whether an employer may delay designating paid leave as FMLA leave due to a collective bargaining agreement;*
  • FLSA2019-13: Addressing the ordinary meaning of the phrase “not less than one month” for purposes of FLSA section 7(i)’s representative period requirement;** and
  • CCPA2019-1: Addressing whether employers’ contributions to employees’ health savings accounts are earnings under the CCPA.***

*It cannot.

**A calendar month.

***No.

And, finally, if you’ve got questions about how to handle pay issues stemming from Hurrican Dorian, the DOL has some answers for you with Fact Sheet #72: Employment & Wages Under Federal Law During Natural Disasters & Recovery.

Feel better? I predict that when your head hits the pillow tonight, you’ll dream of nothing but sipping cotton candy mojitos while enjoying the greatest hits from Season 4 of The Simpsons.

Or something like that.