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Wages & Hours

Must We Give Time Off for ‘Witness Duty’?

06/01/2006

Q. We have an employee who has been subpoenaed to appear as a witness in a criminal case. She obviously has no choice but to go. Are we required to pay her while she is off, or can we have her take vacation time or an unpaid leave of absence? —C.S., Pennsylvania

Jobs Need to be ‘Substantially Equal,’ Not Identical, to Demand Same Pay

05/01/2006

Some employers wrongly believe that they’re not vulnerable to a federal Equal Pay Act claim when the two jobs in question aren’t identical. But female employees don’t need to meet such a high standard to bring their equal-pay claim to court …

Workplace abuse trickles down from the top

05/01/2006

Supervisors engage in more abuse of their staffers when they believe the overall organization makes unfair decisions, according to a new study in Personnel Psychology …

Clarify reasons for differences in employees’ pay

04/01/2006

When it comes to compensation systems, KISS is the rule. If you keep your pay system simple, you’re less likely to have to explain yourself in court, as the following case shows …

Beware Discrimination Risks of Promoting ‘Acting’ Supervisors

04/01/2006

Although it may be tempting to let unproven employees "try out" a promotion to see if they’ll work out, be careful of the hidden legal risks. If you treat the acting supervisor differently than other promoted employees, you could end up on the wrong end of a discrimination suit …

Overtime court battles on the rise and expected to continue

04/01/2006

Rather than calming the turbulent legal waters, the revamping of the federal overtime laws in 2004 has churned up even more disputes and lawsuits …

Asian-American workers: Beware bias, immigration scrutiny

04/01/2006

Following 9/11, the EEOC paid particular attention to employment-discrimination backlash against employees who appeared to be Muslims or of Middle Eastern or South Asian ancestry. But now that effort appears to be broadening. Until recently, the EEOC didn’t view job discrimination against Asian-Americans as a widespread problem. But a new survey changed all that …

 

Must You Pay Employees for ‘Encouraged’ Volunteer Work?

04/01/2006

A new Labor Department opinion letter says that you don’t need to pay nonexempt employees for time spent working on volunteer civic events, such as building Habitat for Humanity houses, even if your organization encourages such activities and links them to the organization’s incentive-pay plan …

Inject more oversight, responsibility into flex schedules

04/01/2006

With flexible schedules reaching near-entitlement status, some employers are pulling in the reins on this runaway perk.
A tighter and clearer flex-schedule policy can help you regain control over the benefit and increase productivity …

Basing pay on past salary alone may spark a legal claim

04/01/2006
Issue: Employers often set new hires’ wages, in part, based on salaries at previous jobs.
Risk: A new court ruling says you could run afoul of the Equal Pay Act …