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Wages & Hours

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 …

Payday lenders fight consumer legislation

06/06/2008
Two payday lenders threatened to shut down operations in Ohio after the state Senate approved a bill that would limit consumers to four short-term loans per year and cap interest rates at 28% …

Can I hire a home-Schooled teenager who doesn’t have a work permit?

06/06/2008
Q. I am a small business owner. A 17-year-old who is not emancipated and has not graduated from high school recently approached me seeking full-time employment. She claims that, because she is home-schooled, she can work full-time year-round and does not have access to a work permit from her school. Can I legally hire this minor without the school certificate required by Ohio law? …

Attorney General Cuomo calls double dipping ‘Inexcusable’

06/04/2008
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has subpoenaed the records of all 124 school districts on Long Island in an investigation of “double dipping” by administrators who received state pensions and were rehired for lucrative interim positions …

Hourly pay for highly paid workers

06/03/2008
Q. We want to hire certain highly paid workers at an hourly rate, but we don’t want to pay overtime at time and a half. These workers would perform exempt duties for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act. What are our options? …

Penalties under the Colorado Wage Act

06/03/2008
Q. We just received notice from a terminated worker that he believes we owe him money for unpaid commissions. What is our potential risk in this situation? …