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Compensation & Benefits

Similar jobs with different pay may be EPA trap

02/01/2008

Here’s a trap that may catch you unaware unless you regularly compare jobs and who actually holds the positions. If two jobs are roughly comparable, but mostly women hold one of the jobs and mostly men hold the other and you pay one more than the other, you are asking for trouble …

Employee or independent contractor? Control is key issue

02/01/2008

Employees are entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Independent contractors are not. That difference can save companies hundreds of thousands of dollars on their labor budgets—but only if they really are using independent contractors. But if those “independent contractors” are actually employees, they can sue for unpaid wages and overtime …

If you ignore legal notice, you lose

02/01/2008

Ignoring any legal papers that land on the receptionist’s desk may spell big trouble. If you don’t answer a lawsuit in time, whoever filed the lawsuit gets an automatic win …

Payroll blunder leads to big payday for Hurricane Katrina workers

02/01/2008

Two companies providing services in the Hurricane Katrina recovery have agreed to pay a total of nearly $1 million to settle claims that nearly 400 workers weren’t paid fairly for their overtime hours …

Do we have to pay for ‘Promised’ hours?

02/01/2008

Q. We have a part-time, hourly employee who usually works three days per week for 12 hours. If we don’t have enough work to fill the time, can we send her home without paying her for the unworked hours that week? — J.T., South Carolina …

Shipping interstate or intrastate? It matters for overtime

02/01/2008

Due to a legislative quirk, the Fair Labor Standards Act doesn’t cover many employees who deliver goods via the nation’s highways. Instead, the drivers are excluded under the FLSA’s motor carrier safety exemption. But it’s not so simple …

Sonoma McDonald’s to pay over $1 million to end wage case

02/01/2008

The owner of several Sonoma County McDonald’s restaurants has agreed to pay $1,155,407 to settle wage-and-hour claims brought by its workers. A class of approximately 1,000 workers claimed that DCT Inc. and Mendes Family Enterprises Inc. denied them overtime pay and breaks …

Make sure you pay what contract states

02/01/2008

Indiana employers, listen up! Pay your workers what you say you will pay them, or get ready to pay a lot more. Employees can sue for unpaid wages under the Indiana Wage Payment Act and collect three times their unpaid wages. That can add up quickly …

CVS fined for child labor, overtime and timecard violations

02/01/2008

CVS Caremark Corp. was fined $226,000 by the U.S. Labor Department for changing employee timecards and violating child labor laws. The department found 43 violations at stores in Pennsylvania and six other states …

$17,000 brightens day for Worthington mushroom workers

02/01/2008

A group of fired Thai workers have settled an unpaid-wages lawsuit with Creekside Mushrooms of Worthington. The mushroom grower will pay $17,376 in back wages to four workers …