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Wages & Hours

Holding employee’s final paycheck to recoup company property

06/12/2008
Q. Our company has a policy requiring employees who are leaving the company to participate in an exit interview. One of the requirements is to check that the terminated employee has returned all company property, including company manuals, laptop computers, identification badges and similar items. Frequently we don’t get everything back that we should. It has been suggested that we hold the employee’s final paycheck until he or she returns all company property. Do you see any problem with adopting such a policy? …

Audit wages and salaries to identify hidden sex bias

06/11/2008
It doesn’t take much for a sex discrimination complaint to turn into a trial. Sometimes all it takes to start a Title VII sex discrimination and Equal Pay Act lawsuit is hiring a woman to fill a position that had been previously held by men who made more money …

Compulsory call-Out doesn’t automatically mean paid wait time

06/11/2008
Some industries are prone to emergencies that suddenly increase the workload. And some companies insist that all employees be available by phone or other means at least part of the time. That doesn’t mean, however, that those subject to a mandatory call-out must be paid for the time they spend waiting for a call …

Must we pay for unapproved overtime?

06/11/2008
Q. Our company requires employees to obtain their supervisors’ prior approval for all overtime. Our management takes the position that it does not need to pay overtime if employees don’t get approval first. My understanding is that all hours worked must be paid. Which is correct? …

Minnesota Supreme Court clarifies employer penalties

06/10/2008
The Supreme Court of Minnesota has issued a decision clarifying penalties under the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act (MFLSA). The ruling makes it clear that employers that don’t follow the law and don’t maintain the required wage-and-hour records may face large fines payable to the state …

No unjust enrichment claims allowed in state and federal FLSA cases

06/10/2008
Sometimes, attorneys representing disgruntled employees will try anything to make the charges stick. Now the federal district court in Minnesota has ruled that plaintiffs can’t add state unjust enrichment claims to standard overtime claims under the federal FLSA and Minnesota’s similar state law …

Sen. Anderson ‘Disappointed’ over Pawlenty’s wage veto

06/10/2008
State Sen. Ellen Anderson, who sponsored the Minimum Wage Bill in the Senate, expressed frustration with Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto. Anderson’s bill would have raised the minimum wage of employees at large companies to $6.75 per hour in July 2008 and $7.75 in 2009 …

Burger King caught in a whopper

06/09/2008
After years of pressure from advocacy groups, several large fast-food companies recently agreed to pay higher wages to Florida’s tomato pickers. These days, Burger King is probably wishing it had agreed, too. In a case of corporate espionage gone very bad, the Miami-based Burger King Corp. now looks not just heartless, but clueless …

Minnesota employers push for 401(k) enrollment, direct deposit

06/06/2008
Twenty Minnesota employers, including Target and the University of Minnesota, aim to convince more employees to contribute to their retirement savings plans and use direct deposit for their pay, as part of the employer-organized Financially Fit Minnesota program …

Expect more scrutiny of high-Paid execs’ salaries

06/06/2008
The Securities and Exchange Commission just created an online tool that lets the public easily see how much top execs are paid at the 500 largest public U.S. companies …