Federal Wage & Hour Laws and Policy

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There have been a host of wage hour cases in the energy industry and I have often commented upon these.  Many concern misclassification issues and another example of this phenomenon has arisen where a class of pipeline inspectors has requested that a federal court approve a settlement amounting to more than $2,000,000 where the theory…

The New Jersey test for independent contractor status under the unemployment laws is already very tough, the very infamous, A-B-C standard.  That is seemingly not enough for this Administration and Commissioner Asaro-Angelo.  The Senate Labor Committee has just passed Senate Bill 4204 which will revise the last two prongs of this tri-partite test, making it…

It is fairly easy for a plaintiff to get conditional certification in a FLSA class action case, but that is not the end of the story.  The next step, much harder, is fending off the defendant’s anticipated motion to stop the class from receiving final certification.  It is even more difficult to withstand that defendant’s…

Many industries and businesses are seasonal and I have been often approached with a client question to the effect of whether the client can change the exempt status of workers, depending on the season.  This occurs, for example, in the case of an employee who is the Head Coach of an athletic team for a…

I like how the USDOL is moving along with proposals and plans that assist employers in running their businesses, compensating their employees fairly, and, importantly, not running afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  The agency has now proposed a rule that would allow employers to use the so-called “fluctuating workweek” formula for overtime…

There has been a lot of talk about how much more pro-business the U.S. Department of Labor was going to be under this Administration.  Well, appearances can be deceiving, as a report has just come out indicating that the agency collected in excess of $322 million last year for workers who did not receive proper…

The truth is that cannabis has now become (and continues to become) big business and the issue of regulation, much, none or in the middle, is now coming to the forefront in legal circles.  Many firms (my own included) have cannabis practice groups and are advising companies in this burgeoning field about the rules of…

Many times, plaintiff lawyers will try to file FLSA class actions as nationwide lawsuits so the size of the class and potential recovery can be magnified geometrically.  Well, that just got a little harder to do as a federal judge rejected an attempt by a group of Outback Steakhouse front-of-house managers to continue as a…

It has finally happened! The USDOL has announced that it is setting the new exempt salary threshold for the “white collar” exemptions at about $35,000, about $700 per week.  The exact salary is $35,368 annually.  This is far lower than the Obama-proposed $47,000 per annum, almost $900 per week.  The new salary level takes take…

I read a very interesting article in the Epstein Becker Wage & Hour Defense Blog, whose sentiments I wholeheartedly agree with.  It concerns the issue of attorney fees for plaintiff lawyers in FLSA/wage cases.  The blog post notes that often, these lawyers get big dollar fee awards, while the allegedly victimized people they represent get…