Wage and Hour Defense Blog

As we previously reported, starting in 2016 the District of Columbia by statute gradually increased its minimum wage to $15.00 per hour, and its tipped minimum to $5.00, effective July 1, 2020. However, included in the statute were provisions for subsequent increases of both these rates based on the annual average increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban consumers in the Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. See D.C. Code §32-1003(a)(6) and (f)(2).  The D.C. Department of Employment Services (DOES) recently announced that pursuant to these provisions, effective ...

On March 22, 2019, we wrote that the two houses of the Maryland General Assembly had agreed on a conference report adopting the Senate’s version of a bill that would increase the state-wide minimum wage to $15 by 2025 or 2026, depending on the size of the company, with two minor changes. We also discussed the bill on March 18, 2019.

As we predicted, Governor Hogan vetoed the bill on March 27, but the General Assembly on March 28, 2019 voted to override the veto. This means the first increase in the state-wide minimum wage will be on January 1, 2020, from $10.10 to $11 for all employers.

On March 18, 2019, we wrote that both houses of the Maryland Assembly had passed bills that would increase the state-wide minimum wage to $15 by 2025 or 2028, depending on the size of the company, but that the House and the Senate still had to work out their differences.

The two chambers acted quickly and on March 20, 2019 (Senate) and March 21, 2019 (House) adopted a conference report that essentially adopted the Senate version (SB 280), with two changes: (1) a two-year acceleration in the timing for companies with fewer than 14 employees, from January 1, 2028 to January 1, 2026, and (2 ...

Maryland appears poised to increase its minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next few years, joining California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and various local jurisdictions, including its own Montgomery County and neighboring District of Columbia.

On March 14, 2019, the Maryland Senate approved a bill (SB 280) that would increase the state-wide minimum wage for companies with at least 14 employees from $10.10 to $15 by January 1, 2025, starting with an increase to $11 on January 1, 2020. Smaller business would have until January 1, 2028 to reach $15. Although this ...

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 ...

Voters in the District of Columbia on June 19, 2018 approved an initiative (Initiative 77) that would incrementally increase the minimum cash wage for tipped workers to $15.00 per hour by July 1, 2025, and starting July 1, 2026 to the same amount as the then-minimum wage for all other workers, effectively eliminating the tip credit. If the initiative takes effect, the District would join seven states that do not have a separate minimum wage for tipped workers, i.e., Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

The D.C. Council previously enacted ...

A year ago, employers across the country prepared for the implementation of a new overtime rule that would dramatically increase the salary threshold for white-collar exemptions, on the understanding that the new rule would soon go into effect “unless something dramatic happens,” a phrase we and others used repeatedly.

And, of course, something dramatic did happen—a preliminary injunction, followed by a lengthy appeal, which itself took more left turns following the U.S. presidential election than a driver in a NASCAR race. The effect was to put employers in a constant ...

When an employer pays the minimum wage (or more) instead of taking the tip credit, who owns any tips – the employer or the employee? In Marlow v. The New Food Guy, Inc., No. 16-1134 (10^th Cir. June 30, 2017), the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held they belong to the employer, who presumably can then either keep them or distribute them in whole or part to employees as it sees fit. This directly conflicts with the Ninth Circuit’s decision last year in Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Ass’n v. Perez, 816 F.3d 1080, 1086-89 (9^th Cir. 2016), pet for cert. filed, No. 16-920 ...

Our colleagues Denise Merna Dadika and Brian W. Steinbach, attorneys in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice at Epstein Becker Green, have a post on the Health Employment and Labor blog that will be of interest to many of our readers: "U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Review DOL Home Care Rule"

Following is an excerpt:

On Monday, June 27, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the new U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) requirement that home care providers pay the federal minimum wage and overtime to home care ...

Brian W. Steinbach, attorney at Epstein Becker Green, has a post on the Hospitality Labor and Employment Law Blog that will be of interest to many of our readers: “Southern District of New York’s Rejection of FLSA Settlement Highlights Need to Settle on Terms That Will Pass Judicial Muster.”

Following is an excerpt:

In rejecting the terms of a collective action settlement in Yun v. Ippudo USA Holdings, No. 14-CV-8706 (S.D.N.Y. March 24, 2016) the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has confirmed the significance of last year’s Second Circuit ...

Although not widely reported, effective January 1, 2016, the District of Columbia joins New York City and San Francisco in requiring employers of 20 or more employees to offer qualified transportation benefits.  By that date, covered D.C. employers who do not already do so must offer one of three transit benefit options.

Under the Sustainable DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2014, Title III, Subtitle A, “Reducing Single Occupancy Vehicle Use by Encouraging Transit Benefits,” at D.C. Code §32-151, et seq., covered employers must “provide at least one of the following ...

Reversing a decision by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, an August 21, 2015 decision by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Home Care Association of America v. Weil (pdf) has approved a regulation by the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) extending federal minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers and live-in domestic service employees employed by third parties.

We previously wrote about the decision by the District Court for the District of Columbia that vacated a DOL regulation that had been ...