Wages & Hours

How will Illinois’ wage law change next year?

09/16/2010

Q. How are employees affected by the amendment to the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act?

Docking exempt worker for single day: Is it legal?

09/16/2010

Q. We require exempt employees who miss a full day for any reason to use either a sick day, personal day or vacation day in order to get paid for the full week. Is this appropriate? Is it permissible to pay them for less than a full week of work if they have used all of their paid leave time and still miss a full day of work?

Employees change clothes at work? Heed new pay rules

09/15/2010

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued a new interpretation letter that says time spent changing in and out of “protective clothing” (e.g., helmets, smocks, aprons, gloves, etc.) is considered paid time. Find more details and a link to the DOL letter at www.theHRSpecialist.com/clothing.

The HR I.Q. Test: September ’10

09/13/2010

Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz …

Beware legal risk of raising employee’s title in lieu of pay

09/09/2010

With nervous employers still keeping generous raises on the shelf, more companies are turning to job title promotions to show their appreciation. The risk: The titles themselves don’t reflect the duties of the position and required expertise, which can cause difficulty separating exempt and non-exempt employees.

What can we do about an employee who has been blasting us on his personal web site?

09/08/2010

Q. One of my employees has created his own web site and has been posting negative comments about our company. Specifically, he has accused the company of failing to provide adequate benefits and paying below-market wages. Can we fire this worker for this conduct?

Can we shuffle hours between weeks to avoid OT?

09/06/2010

Q. Employees at our construction company sometimes work more than 40 hours in one week, but far fewer than 40 the next. We have been transferring the extra hours to the next week. Can we do this?

For hourly employees, unauthorized extra time counts toward FMLA eligibility

09/01/2010

Employees have to work at least 1,250 hours in a year to qualify for FMLA leave. They also must have been employed for a total of one year. Thus, while many part-time employees may qualify for FMLA leave, others won’t because they haven’t met those thresholds. But now some hourly employees and their attorneys are trying a new approach.

What are the laws on correcting timecards?

08/27/2010

Q. We use a timecard punch-in/punch-out system. If an employee forgets to punch in, and we manually do it, do any labor laws apply?

Is pay required for after-hours work functions?