Wage and Hour Defense Blog

In recent years, a growing number of states and localities have enacted unique minimum wage laws and ordinances entitling employees to be paid more – in some cases, substantially more – than the federal minimum wage, which has stood at $7.25 for nearly a decade.

As these minimum wages become more particularized, multi-jurisdictional employers face an increasing challenge to maintain compliance.

Below is an overview of notable increases slated to take effect on January 1, 2019, unless otherwise noted.

Please note that, at this late date, the 2019 minimum wage remains the subject ...

Featured on Employment Law This Week:  The Department of Labor (“DOL”) rolls back the 80/20 rule.

The rule prohibited employers from paying the tipped minimum wage to workers whose untipped side work—such as wiping tables—accounted for more than 20 percent of their time. In the midst of a federal lawsuit challenging the rule, the DOL reissued a 2009 opinion letter that states that the agency will not limit the amount of side work a tipped employee performs, as long as that work is done “contemporaneously” with the tipped work or for a “reasonable time” before or after ...

On December 4, 2018, New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (“TLC”) voted to require ride-hailing companies operating in New York City to compensate its drivers who are treated as independent contractors, and not employees, on a per-minute and –mile payment formula, which will result in a $17.22 per hour wage floor.

This new rule is scheduled to take effect on December 31, 2018.

This new minimum wage for independent contractor drivers who operate vehicles on behalf of ride-hailing companies – including Uber, Lyft, Via, and Juno – will surpass the new $15 minimum ...

Effective December 31, 2018, New York State’s salary basis threshold for exempt executive and administrative employees[1] will increase again, as a part of amendments to the minimum wage orders put in place in 2016.[2] Employers must increase the salaries of employees classified as exempt under the executive and administrative exemptions by the end of the year to maintain these exemptions.

The increases to New York’s salary basis threshold for the executive and administrative exemptions will take effect as follows:

Employers in New York City 

• Large employers (11 or ...

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), employers can satisfy their minimum wage obligations to tipped employees by paying them a tipped wage of as low as $2.13 per hour, so long as the employees earn enough in tips to make up the difference between the tipped wage and the full minimum wage. (Other conditions apply that are not important here.) Back in 1988, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division amended its Field Operations Handbook, the agency’s internal guidance manual for investigators, to include a new requirement the agency sought to apply to ...

Joining several other federal appellate courts including the Fourth and Ninth Circuits , on October 22, 2018 the Seventh Circuit concluded in Herrington v. Waterstone Mortgage Corporation, No. 17-3609 (7th Cir. Oct. 22, 2018) that the arbitrability of a class claim is one for the court to decide, not the arbitrator. In so doing, the court placed in jeopardy a $10 million arbitration award in a wage-hour case.

Herrington originally filed suit against Waterstone, alleging that Waterstone failed to pay her and other employees minimum wages and overtime pay in violation of  the FLSA ...

In April 2018, we wrote about the California Supreme Court’s decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, which had clarified the standard for determining whether workers in California should be classified as employees or as independent contractors for purposes of the wage orders adopted by California’s Industrial Welfare Commission (“IWC”).

In Dynamex, the Court adopted the “ABC” test that has been used in some other jurisdictions.  Because Dynamex had adopted the “ABC” test for claims arising under IWC wage orders, there was some uncertainty ...

In our July 9, 2018 post we reported that a seven-member majority of the D.C. Council had introduced a bill, Bill 22-0913 (Tipped Wage Workers Fairness Amendment Act of 2018) to repeal Initiative 77, an initiative that District of Columbia voters approved on June 27, 2018 that would incrementally increase the minimum cash wage for tipped workers to $15.00 per hour by July 1, 2025 and effectively eliminate the tip credit starting July 1, 2026. We also noted that no further action would occur until this Fall due to a two-month summer recess.

The Council is now back in session and on October 2 ...

The question whether an individual may be held liable for alleged wage-hour violations is one that occasionally arises in class action litigation – and, for obvious reasons, it is one that is particularly important to individuals who own entities or who are responsible for overseeing wage-hour compliance.

In Atempa v. Pedrazzani, the California Court of Appeal held that persons responsible for overtime and/or minimum wage violations in fact can be held personally liable for civil penalties, regardless of whether they were the employer or the employer is a limited liability ...

In 2018, we have seen important new wage and hour developments unfolding on a seemingly weekly basis. To help you stay up to date and out of the crosshairs of the plaintiffs’ bar, we invite you to join Epstein Becker Green’s Employment, Labor & Workforce Management Webinar Series presentation for September. Presented by our Wage and Hour practice group, this webinar will focus on wage and hour developments affecting the hospitality and home health care industries, although much of the information will also be of interest to employers in other industries.

With an eye toward the ...