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Wages & Hours

New wage order means pay changes for hospitality employers

03/04/2011
New York employers in the hotel and restaurant industry have a new pay rule to work with, changing how tip income is handled and tweaking other details that affect how much pay workers take home.

Employees’ pockets picked while being frisked?

03/04/2011
Employees at Century 21 Department Stores in New York City and Long Island undergo searches every time they leave the store for breaks and at the end of the day. They say the process sometimes takes 15 minutes or longer. The problem: Century 21 makes them clock out first. Employees say that violates the FLSA.

Will bonuses affect employees’ ‘regular rate’ when calculating overtime pay under the FLSA?

03/04/2011
Q. We want to offer incentive bonuses to hourly workers in order to increase business and productivity. Will these bonuses affect the employees’ “regular rate” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for purposes of overtime calculation?

Texas deadlines tighter than Ledbetter Act’s

03/04/2011
A Texas appeals court has ruled that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 doesn’t change the deadline for filing a claim under the Texas Labor Code. Employees still have to use the pay decision date as the start of the filing deadline.

Track every step in your promotion process

02/28/2011

Employees can be ungrateful. Sometimes, they’ll turn down promotion offers because the deal isn’t sweet enough—and then sue, alleging that low pay was evidence of bias. Win those cases by producing documentation of the entire promotion process, including how you set pay.

Be ready to explain male/female pay differences

02/25/2011

The Equal Pay Act requires the same pay for women and men doing the same work under similar working conditions and requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility. But the law provides several ways for employers to defend pay disparities. Wage differences can be justified if they are based on a seniority or merit system, or vary depending on the quantity or quality of production.

Study: Paid family leave doesn’t kill jobs

02/25/2011
When California enacted a 2004 law requiring employers to grant paid leave for employees to bond with a new child or care for a sick family member, critics predicted it would cost jobs and harm small businesses. A new study says that didn’t happen.

$1 million more in OT for Fort Irwin contractors

02/24/2011
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Be prepared to justify newcomer’s higher pay

02/24/2011

If you decide to pay new hires more than employees with similar or better qualifications, be prepared to prove why you needed to sweeten the pot. Otherwise, you could be risking an Equal Pay Act lawsuit if an incumbent belongs to a protected class.

How do we decide whether we need to pay for responding to off-duty phone calls?

02/23/2011
Q. We would like to require employees in one of our departments to promptly answer their company-provided cell phones even when they are away from work. If we impose this rule, do we have to pay these employees around the clock?