Employment Law Blog

Here We Go Again: New DOL Independent Contractor Rule In Effect

In the continuing tug of war that has taken place with recent successive presidential administrations, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) on January 10th, 2024, published a new final rule to once again define “independent contractor” for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The new rule adopts a six-factor test to determine the “economic reality” of the relationship between the worker and the potential employer. It went into effect on March 11th.  More >

WEBINAR - Scary Stories from the HR Department, Volume VI: Who Killed Non-Competes?

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DOL Moves to Raise Salary Floor in Proposed Overtime Rule

The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed to raise the salary threshold—a long-anticipated yet dreaded move that will affect how many employers pay their workers. More >

A Day in the Life Working from Home – What Time is Compensable?

Nearly three years after it suddenly became a necessity for many employees to work from home, it’s clear that teleworking isn’t going anywhere. Many employers have chosen to allow for remote or hybrid work arrangements—but in the “work from home” era, issues like timekeeping for non-exempt employees can get a little fuzzy. We’ll walk you through a teleworking employee’s day and give you the rundown on what is compensable time under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), what isn’t, and tips for making sense of it all. More >

Wage and Hour Violations – Hope for Employers

Employers cheer! Unintentional failure to pay may not be a “willful” violation.

Wage and hour law has been a rocky ride for employers in the last year or so. First came a heavily amended overtime rule set to change the wage and hour landscape completely, then the rule faltered in the courts, then a new administration set out to revise the new rule with an even newer rule. With all this uncertainty, there are still occasionally bits of good news that allow employers to breathe easier, like a recent ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that an unintentional error that did not log overtime for part-time employees did not expose their employer to extra liability. More >

New Overtime Rules May Be Here Sooner than Expected

The timeline for adoption of the Final Rule of proposed changes to the white collar overtime exemption has been hard to pin down. In early November of 2015, Solicitor of Labor M. Patricia Smith, during a panel discussion at the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Conference in Philadelphia, mentioned that the proposed changes would not be issued until late 2016, leading many to believe that they would not take effect until 2017. Later that month, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Division estimated that the rule would be published in July 2016, not quite as late as earlier implied. Then, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez stated in December in an interview with Bloomberg BNA that it seemed likely to him that the new rule would be out by spring of 2016. In February of 2016, Smith reiterated the Wage and Hour Division’s projected timeline of a July 2016 publication with an effective date 60 days later. On March 14^th, 2016, the Department of Labor made the surprising move of sending its overtime rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”), which means that all bets are off and the rule may here sooner than predicted. More >