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Wages & Hours

How should we pay exempt employee who was terminated midway through the week?

07/01/2008
Q. We recently terminated an exempt employee halfway through a workweek. Given the Fair Labor Standards Act requirement that exempt employees must be paid on a salary basis, are we required to pay the employee for the entire week?

Don’t delay paying overtime for workers on temp assignments

07/01/2008
Sometimes, employers send employees away on temporary assignments. Often, that means long hours in strange locations and less communication between employees and the home office. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can delay paying legitimate wages—such as overtime—if the employee isn’t exempt …

Public employers, take note: Appeals court rules on firefighter/Paramedic exemption

07/01/2008
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over New Jersey employers, has finally ruled on a sticky point that has perplexed many fire departments. The court has concluded that paramedics who also have firefighting responsibilities can be paid less than time-and-a-half for overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act …

Brother, can you spare some tuna?

07/01/2008
Jevic Transportation employees, dumped unceremoniously when the company went bankrupt, have been fighting to get in the gate, not to voice their anger or serve a court summons, but to feed a half dozen feral cats that were accustomed to being cared for by Jevic workers …

Prepare now for Paid Family Leave Act, taking effect in 2009

07/01/2008
On May 2, 2008, Gov. Jon Corzine signed the Paid Family Leave Act (PFLA), making New Jersey the third state to provide workers with paid family-leave benefits. The PFLA takes effect on January 1, 2009, when employees will begin contributing to the fund …

Civil rights groups seek union representation for gov’t workers

07/01/2008
The NAACP and other civil rights groups urged lawmakers to give government employees collective bargaining rights during the organization’s “People of Color Justice and Unity Legislative Day” on May 28 in Raleigh …

Discrimination and pay issues when employee has jury duty

07/01/2008
Q. One of our employees has been called for jury duty. What are our obligations? …

Severance pay in case of a layoff

07/01/2008
Q. Does Colorado require severance pay if companies do layoffs? …

Salary reductions and exempt status

07/01/2008
Q. We are considering reducing salaries across the board because of a slowdown in business. Will reducing the salary of exempt employees jeopardize their exempt status? …

Restrictions on paid administrative leave?

07/01/2008
Q. We hired an employee on a short-term arrangement, but then placed her on administrative leave after we received complaints about her. The leave will continue until the end of the term, and we are going to pay her while she is on leave. Is this permissible? …