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Wages & Hours

‘Predictive scheduling’ laws pick up steam

08/15/2019
Does your organization sometimes cancel employees’ shifts at the last minute, schedule extra workers for peak times (then send some of them home) or require employees to be prepared to call in to work at any time? If so, a growing trend of local laws could make those practices unlawful.

Overtime rule forwarded to White House for final review

08/13/2019
The Department of Labor sent its long-awaited white-collar overtime rule to the White House for a final review on Aug. 12. If enacted, the rule would raise the minimum overtime salary threshold by 50% from the current $23,660.

Employer survey: Pay to rise a modest 3% in 2020

08/13/2019
U.S. employees hoping for larger pay raises next year may be disappointed. A new survey by the Willis Towers Watson consulting firm finds that U.S. employers plan to hold the line on budgeted pay raises in 2020, despite low unemployment and a tight labor market.

Can we make pay raises contingent on doing charitable volunteer work?

07/30/2019
Q. Our new CEO believes in volunteering and wants to institute a new requirement that all employees volunteer at least five hours per month to be eligible for pay increases at evaluation time. She wants to provide a list of appropriate places to volunteer. Can she do this?

New tip-pool rules under review

07/30/2019
The federal Office of Management and Budget on July 26 began reviewing a proposed rule that would formally prohibit business owners and managers from pocketing a portion of their employees’ tips if they pay employees a subminimum, tip-credit wage of $2.13 per hour instead of the usual minimum wage.

House votes to raise federal minimum wage to $15 per hour

07/23/2019
The House of Representatives voted July 18 to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, passing legislation that will probably not have even a committee hearing in the Republican-controlled Senate.

On World Cup bandwagon, NY enacts equal pay laws

07/11/2019
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo chose an apt setting to sign legislation mandating equal pay for substantially equal work, regardless of an employee’s protected class.

Equal pay: Document how and why jobs differ

07/11/2019
The Equal Pay Act requires employers to pay members of each sex the same for performing work that is substantially the same. The only way for an employer to defend an EPA lawsuit is to prove that the jobs aren’t substantially similar—or that the pay difference is attributable to some factor other than sex.

Fresno plumbing company settles in DOL overtime case

07/02/2019
Following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, M&L Plumbing has agreed to pay $113,351 in back pay. The DOL found that the company owed 39 employees the money for unpaid overtime.

Farm labor contractor pays for seasonal worker violations

07/02/2019
J. Carmen Mora, a Northern California farm labor contractor, has paid $166,126 after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found multiple violations of wage-and-hour rules.