• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Wages & Hours

How should I handle meal breaks and downtime when we work on a split-shift basis?

09/21/2015
Q. I need my restaurant employees to work lunch and dinner shifts but not the two hours between when we are closed. Do I have to pay for the time they are on break between or does it qualify as a meal break?

California minimum wage bill stalls in legislature

09/21/2015
A controversial bill to increase California’s minimum wage recently failed to pass in the state Legislature. The bill would have phased in a $3 per hour increase to the minimum wage rate and also would have imposed annual cost of living increases.

Fed contractors can’t gag pay talk

09/15/2015
A new rule issued by the Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs explicitly gives employees of federal contractors and subcontractors the right to discuss how much they are paid.

What matches NYC’s new $15 minimum wage?

09/03/2015
To put it in perspective, the Pew Research Center calculated what it would cost to give employees in other cities the same purchasing power.

Weis Markets raises its minimum wage to $9

09/01/2015
Effective Aug. 2, Sunbury-based Weis Markets has begun paying all its employees at least $9 per hour.

Pennsylvania state senator proposes $15 minimum wage

09/01/2015
State Sen. Daylin Lynch, whose district straddles Montgomery and Delaware counties, has introduced legislation that would raise the Pennsylvania minimum wage to $15.

What are California’s unique overtime rules?

08/26/2015
Three questions about overtime pay in California.

A silver lining to the SEC’s CEO pay-ratio rule?

08/13/2015
How can employers actually use the new CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio rule to their advantage?

Proposal would raise New York fast-food pay to at least $15 per hour

08/13/2015
New York’s Wage Board has endorsed a recommendation to raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 per hour. The new hourly rate will apply to employees of chains with at least 30 locations in New York.

Don’t punish absences by taking away more leave than employee used

08/13/2015

You can punish employees who don’t show up as scheduled with a poor performance review or even discharge. But you cannot take away pay, either in the form of wages or by deducting days from the employee’s leave bank. Doing so may violate New York State’s Labor Law.