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Compensation & Benefits

Feds issue new tip-credit pooling rules

06/10/2011
Employers are now free to set the percentage of employee tips that can be placed in a tip pool. In years past, several court decisions conflicted with the U.S. Department of Labor’s position restricting the amount of tips an employer could require to be pooled.

Don’t court lawsuit by allowing early clock-ins

06/10/2011
Beware if you allow employees to clock in early, but tell them not to start work before their scheduled start times. If early clock-ins are routinely unpaid, there may be a class-action lawsuit brewing.

5 ways to ease employees’ pain from high gas prices

06/10/2011
With gas prices bouncing around near the $4-per-gallon mark, some employers are looking again at ways to help employees keep their tanks filled—or at least get to work each day. Here are some options for you and your employees:

More OT lawsuits? There’s an app for that

06/09/2011
Last month, U.S. employees gained a powerful new tool to prove their wage-and-hour cases: the new “Timesheet” app for smartphones from the DOL’s Wage and Hour Divi­sion. Impact: This is more incentive for employers to accurately track employees’ actual hours worked—not just hours written on a time sheet.

Must we hold job for injured worker?

06/08/2011
Q. We have an employee who has been off work for more than 10 months because of a workers’ comp-covered injury. We have no idea when she may possibly be able to return to work. Are we absolutely required under the law to give this employee her job back whenever she believes she is ready to return to work, no matter how long she has been out?

Check your leave policies! EEOC looks at return-to-work issues

06/08/2011
Now is the time to review your return-to-work policies and practices for employees on leave. They need to be integrated without regard to the reason that prompted leave. Treating workers differently depending on the reason for their absence opens the possibility of a disability discrimination claim.

Feds issue new tip-credit pooling rules

06/08/2011
Employers are now free under federal law to set the percentage of employee tips that can be placed in a tip pool. But Minnesota employers need to be aware of a crucial difference between federal and state laws.

Employees can’t demand specific schedule

06/08/2011
Employees sometimes think that employers have to accommodate all their schedule requests. Not usually. Often, employees fired for refusing to work their scheduled hours expect to receive unemployment benefits.

Merely worrying about pay cut doesn’t justify quitting

06/08/2011
Employees who quit because of substantially reduced pay may be able to collect unemployment. However, they can’t merely speculate that a new pay system will result in lower pay.

Federal appeals court rules on OT for city firefighters assigned to state duty

06/08/2011
Government entities that employ fire­fighters face thorny Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) problems. The law requires overtime pay for fire­fighters who work more than 204 hours in a 27-day period. But that can get complicated when a local agency assigns its firefighters to battle wildfires for the state.