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Wages & Hours

New rule on white-collar overtime pay pushed back to February

12/02/2014
Look for the Department of Labor to release a new proposed rule for paying overtime to white-collar workers in February 2015, a roll-back of the department’s original, self-imposed November deadline.

If an employee wants to earn less, not more, what could possibly be the legal risk?

11/19/2014
Q. Can we pay an employee minimum wage for a position that usually pays more? We have an applicant who doesn’t want to lose her pension benefits and can work for minimum wage yet still qualify to receive her pension. Should we have her make that request in writing?

IKEA announces 17% boost in its minimum wage

11/13/2014
Swedish ready-to-assemble furniture maker IKEA will soon give a pay raise averaging $1.59 per hour to its lowest-paid U.S. employees. The move, affecting about half the company’s workforce of 11,000, will raise IKEA’s average minimum wage to $10.76.

When ‘manager’ doesn’t manage, title doesn’t determine exempt status

11/13/2014
Just because an employee is called a supervisor and sometimes tells others what tasks to perform, that doesn’t mean she’s an exempt admin­­istrative or executive employee. It’s the actual duties performed day to day that count.

Beware automatic nightly time-clock resets

11/13/2014

If your business doesn’t operate 24/7, you probably shut down just about everything at some point during the night. That’s especially common with retail operations. If that shutdown includes resetting the time clocks to automatically clock out everyone, you may be courting a lawsuit.

Minimum wages on the rise as ballot initiatives pass

11/12/2014
The minimum wage will increase in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, as well as Oakland and San Francisco, Calif., after voters approved local ballot initiatives on Nov. 4.

Oil firms must pay millions for required pre-work meetings

11/03/2014
Oil and natural gas giant Shell Oil and refiner Motiva have agreed to pay $4,460,764 to 2,677 workers after the U.S. Department of Labor determined the companies failed to pay workers for required pre-shift meetings.

How should we pay for weekend travel time?

10/31/2014
Q. How do you pay hourly employees who are traveling on a day that’s not considered a workday, like Saturday or Sunday? What if they normally have a 10-minute commute to the office but instead they have to go to the airport, which is an hour away?

Complicated compensation formula? Prepare to spell out all details in court

10/27/2014
Here’s a warning for employers with overly complicated compensation systems: If someone believes the pay plan is discriminatory, you’ll probably have to spend considerable time explaining the system in court. Simpler may be better.

Pursuit of SoCal dentist shows wage law has teeth

10/27/2014
For a Southern California cook, getting paid was like pulling teeth. For five months he was a private chef for a dentist, but was never paid.