Wage and Hour Defense Blog

One of the featured stories on Employment Law This Week is the Department of Labor's proposed fiduciary rule heading to the White House.

The new rule would impose stricter conflict-of-interest rules and fiduciary requirements on advisors working with retirement plans and investors. Critics of the DOL proposal have charged that it would prevent workers who cannot afford highly individualized advice from receiving basic retirement planning services. As with the EEOC, the Department of Labor is making a big regulatory push in Obama's last year as president. Next on the horizon is the ...

The top story on Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – is the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division's new interpretation of joint employment.

The federal Wage and Hour Division issued an Administrator’s Interpretation with new guidelines for joint employers under the FLSA and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. The Division makes it clear that it believes employers are regularly part of joint employment relationships with their vendors and business partners. If an employee files a claim or lawsuit and a ...

As part of the Wage Hour Division’s continuing focus on defining the employment relationships covered by the FLSA, the Division’s Administrator has issued an Administrators’ Interpretation (as well as a Fact Sheet) addressing joint employment relationships.  At the very least, the Interpretation suggests that the Division will be seeking to use the “joint employer” doctrine to pursue multiple entities – and “deeper pockets” – to address wage issues.

“Larger and More Established” Employers

The Administrator’s Interpretation notes that joint ...

One of the featured stories on Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – is the increase in minimum wage laws across the country in 2016. Nationwide, activism around minimum wages has had a big impact on new legislation coming into effect this year. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia will raise their minimum wages in 2016. California and Massachusetts will have the highest state minimum wages at $10/hour. Some city governments have gone even higher. San Francisco employers and large Seattle employers who do not provide medical benefits ...

In a split decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to adopt a bright-line rule to assess whether a managerial employee has filed a complaint for the purposes of § 215(a)(3) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the statute’s anti-retaliation provision.  The decision, Rosenfield v. GlobalTranz Enterprises, appears to highlight a disagreement among the Circuits.

At least four Circuit Courts – the First, Fifth, Sixth and Tenth – have adopted a manager-specific legal standard:  in order to engage in protected activity under § 215(a)(3), the employee ...

As we look towards the New Year, employers with locations in various jurisdictions should be mindful of state and local minimum wage increases that will soon take effect.

Some of these increases are a result of laws that tie wages to an economic index (generally the Consumer Price Index). Others are the result of recent legislation.

Below are two charts addressing these changes. The first summarizes the relevant changes for states; the second, for cities and other localities.

Please note that Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington all have CPI ...

One of the featured stories on Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – is that there will be no BlackBerry overtime pay for cops in Chicago.

A federal magistrate judge in the Northern District of Illinois ruled that time spent by Chicago police officers actually answering emails on their BlackBerries was work eligible for overtime. However, "monitoring" of their BlackBerries was not work because the officers were still free to use the time predominantly for their own benefit. Regardless, the judge found that the City did not know the employees were ...

As we mentioned earlier this week, I was recently interviewed on our firm’s new video program, Employment Law This Week.  The show has now released “bonus footage” from that episode – see below.

I elaborate on some of the reasons behind this year's sharp increase in federal wage-and-hour suits: worker-friendly rules, increased publicity around minimum wage and overtime issues, and the difficulties of applying an outdated law to today's “gig” economy.

[embed]https://youtu.be/Vd3K-9Dfvk4?list=PLi4sj4jEe5heNkhVnjMTh94ipZhPPpMVh[/embed]

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently joined the chorus of Circuits adopting the pro-employer “predominant benefit test” when weighing the compensability of meal periods under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).  As a result, the Ninth Circuit is the lone Circuit to apply a different standard, opting to follow the U.S. Department of Labor regulations providing that an “employee must be completely relieved from duty” in order for a meal period to be deemed bona fide and thus not compensable.

In Babcock v. Butler County, a putative class action lawsuit, employees ...

The top story on Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – is the record high for Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits in 2015.

The number of federal wage-and-hour suits rose almost 8% this year. There are many reasons for the increase, including more worker-friendly rules and increased publicity around minimum wage and overtime issues. Some point to the difficulties of applying an outdated law to our modern day economy.

Jeff Ruzal, co-editor of this blog, is interviewed. Click below to view the episode.