Wages & Hours

Misclassification could cost Dayton cable firm $1.6 million

11/07/2011

A federal judge has sided with the U.S. Department of Labor in an employee misclassification lawsuit against Fairfield-based Cascom, which lays fiber-optic lines for Time Warner Cable in the Dayton area.

How to prevent costly FLSA mistakes with holiday pay & scheduling

11/03/2011

The time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is a busy time for many HR departments. Questions regarding overtime, holiday pay and seasonal hires often arise. As long as you know the FLSA rules on holiday pay and holiday scheduling, you’ll skate through the season in good cheer.

When salaries differ within job classification, be prepared to offer data explaining why

11/01/2011

Smart employers document all the reasons for every rate of pay, in case someone later alleges some form of discrimination. That way, they’re prepared to justify exactly why one worker earns more or less than another similarly situated colleague.

Are we allowed to round off hours worked?

10/31/2011

Q, My company tracks the hours of nonexempt employees using a time clock. In determining their wages, can we round up or down to the nearest five-minute increment?

Fixing misclassification? Pay the right amount

10/25/2011

Sometimes, it becomes clear that an employee has been misclassified as exempt when she should really be an hourly employee. Employers that want to fix the situation can do so and avoid a lawsuit by offering the employee double her lost overtime pay, plus interest going back either two or three years depending on how the mistake happened.

Variable pay is where workers will get bigger bucks

10/25/2011

While employers are budgeting 2.9% more for base pay in 2012, 92% plan to distribute performance-based bonuses, according to an Aon Corp. survey of 1,500 companies.

Outback’s tip policy: No rules, just wrong

10/12/2011

Outback Steakhouse has agreed to pay $1.25 million to Minnesota employees to remedy what servers at the restaurant chain said was an illegal tip-pooling procedure under state law.

FLSA administrative exemption doesn’t require employee to meet all examples in regulation

10/11/2011

Here’s some good news for employers that classify workers as exempt under the FLSA’s administration exemption: Contrary to what some attorneys have been attempting to argue, employees don’t have to perform all the functions listed in the DOL regulations, just one.

Utah turns out the lights on 4-day workweek

10/06/2011

In 2008, Utah launched a “4/10” workweek for state workers—10-hour days from Monday through Thursday—in a bid to cut costs and conserve energy. But the state scrapped its grand experiment last month, saying it wasn’t saving as much as expected.

Beware seeking exemptions under Motor Carrier Act

10/04/2011

Some employers think they can classify truck drivers as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act by relying on the federal Motor Carrier Act. But that’s tricky. To be covered by the MCA, the drivers must cross state lines while doing their jobs.