Wage and Hour Defense Blog

Florida led the nation in Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits in 2009. Statistics generated from PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) show that about 2000 new cases were filed in United States District Courts in Florida last year, far more than in any other state.

In a landmark decision upholding the validity of the employer's mandatory tip pool, on February 23, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in Misty Cumbie v. Woody Woo, Inc. No. 08-35718. The court held that where the employer paid a direct wage of at least minimum wage to restaurant wait staff, requiring them to participate in a tip-pooling arrangement with other restaurant employees does not violate the Fair Labor Standards Act. ("FLSA")..

Last summer fifteen United States senators wrote an open letter to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to urge the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") to repeal the Domestic Service exemption from the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the ("FLSA") for home health care workers. Secretary Solis has expressed support for the effort to review this exemption, with a view toward closing this "loophole."

by Evan Spelfogel

On February 1, 2010, President Barack Obama released his federal budget for the coming fiscal year, including $117 billion for the United States Department of Labor, of which $25 million was set aside expressly to help the DOL combat employee misclassification. This includes, specifically, identifying and litigating against employers that categorize workers as independent contractors when, in fact, they are employees, and that classify as exempt from overtime those employees who do not meet the requirements of the White Collar Exemptions under Part 541 of the ...

Hazardous occupations are no place for employees under the age of 18. Employers must be certain to prohibit minors from operating power driven wood working machines, metal working machines, bakery machines, fork lifts, balers and compactors, meat slicers, and nail guns. The full list of hazardous occupations are set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations, 29 C.F.R. 570, et. seq. Protecting America's children in the workplace has long been a stated objective of the U.S. Department of Labor, and the civil money penalties for serious violations have recently been strengthened.

President Obama just celebrated his first year in office and his Administration has been busy! Employers of all sizes are starting to see the effects of the Obama Administration's workplace agenda; especially at the Department of Labor (DOL). The watchword for all employers in the wage/hour arena for 2010 is "compliance."

By Doug Weiner

            In a decision dated January 5, 2010 the D.C. Circuit raised that question in a case involving the administrative exemption in a Fair Labor Standards Act class action.  

Stating the District Court had no occasion to decide whether the job of a GEICO auto damage adjuster is so easy a caveman could do it, (referring to GEICO’s well known ad campaign in a light hearted footnote) the appellate court held that GEICO satisfied its burden of proof that its employees performed exempt administrative duties. The appellate court reversed the district court’s summary judgment for ...

By Doug Weiner

The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has announced an intention to initiate a rule making process concerning the records employers are required to make and keep pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Section 11 of the FLSA requires employers to keep specified records of the hours employees work, and the wages they are paid. The DOL proposes to update the recordkeeping regulations under the FLSA in order to enhance the transparency and disclosure to workers of how their pay is computed, and to modernize other recordkeeping requirements for ...

By Amy J. Traub

On December 16, 2009, Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment to Starbucks Corp. (“Starbucks”) in a wage/hour lawsuit filed by former and current baristas of Starbucks’s coffee shops located in New York.

In their lawsuit, filed in April 2008, the New York baristas argued that Starbucks had violated state wage and hour laws by splitting tips intended for baristas with shift supervisors, handing out tips on a weekly basis instead of on a per-shift basis, and failing to distribute tips ...