The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently took two actions implicating and potentially implicating, respectively, how employees are paid under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). A New Rule First, on September 27, the DOL issued a final rule on implementing the exemptions from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for executive, administrative, professional, […]
Agency Activity
Employers: Don’t Be Part of the Department of Labor’s Statistics
The Department of Labor is reporting that it collected $322 million in back wages for workers in fiscal year 2019, which is a record. The amount collected in fiscal year 2018 was also a record at that time. This should put to rest any concerns about DOL enforcement policies under a Republican administration. Most of […]
Wells Fargo Learns That Hiring Matters Too
The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into a conciliation agreement with Wells Fargo & Co. to settle allegations that it discriminated in hiring on the basis of sex and race. The Office of Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) found that Wells Fargo (a federal contractor) had discriminated against 2,066 female applicants for positions as online […]
Tell Us About Bad Wage and Hour Investigators Says Head of Wage and Hour Division
The wage and hour laws are complicated, and rarely intuitive. Technical violations of wage and hour laws are so common that no company can be absolutely positive that it is complying with all Department of Labor regulations, and the laws and regulations of states and local jurisdictions. In fact, these laws and regulations are so […]
NLRB Issues New Guidance on Social Media Policies
The Office of the General Counsel to the NLRB recently released an Advice Memorandum shedding new light on the types of social media rules that are permissible in the wake of the Board’s December 2017 ruling in The Boeing Co, 365 NLRB No. 154 (12/17/17). In that case, the Board set a new standard for […]
Department of Labor Opines That Gig Workers are Independent Contractors
On April 29, 2019, the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Division issued an opinion letter (FLSA2019-6) stating that workers in the “gig” or “sharing” economy should be considered as independent contractors rather than employees. This opinion letter, while limited to the specific facts of the anonymous company who requested it, has potentially wide-ranging […]
Some Fun Facts About The EEOC’s 2018 Charge Data
By Randi Klein Hyatt on April 12, 2019 in Agency Activity, Employment Discrimination, Retaliation, Sexual Harassment
The EEOC released its 2018 charge statistics earlier this week. Here are three key pieces of information to consider: Charge filings have decreased. In 2018, the EEOC processed 76,418 charges, which represents more than a 9% decrease from 2017, a nearly 17% decrease from 2016, and a 23.5% decreased from the all-time high year of […]
DOL Issues First FMLA Opinion Letter Of 2019
In FMLA2019-1-A, the DOL advised that an employer cannot delay designating qualifying leave as FMLA, even if requested by the employee. In particular, the DOL was asked if it is permissible to permit employees to exhaust first any non-FMLA leave prior to designating otherwise qualifying leave as FMLA. The DOL explained that an employer may not […]
DOL Proposes New Rules on Regular Rate Calculations
As anyone who has ever tried to properly calculate overtime can attest, the question of what compensation should properly be included in an employee’s regular rate of pay is a vexing one. On March 28, 2019, the United States Department of Labor proposed new rules that may add some clarity. The “regular rate” of pay […]
Two Important Wage-Related Updates
By Kollman & Saucier on March 8, 2019 in Agency Activity, Legal Developments, Legislative Developments, Wage & Hour
This has been an action-packed week on the wage and hour frontier. Two important decisions at the federal level are expected to significantly impact most employers going forward. Revised Overtime Rule First, on Thursday evening, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced its long-awaited proposed rule to update the salary exemption threshold under the Fair Labor […]
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