FLSA

Throw a bucket of ice water on summer payroll problems

04/16/2025

Regardless of whether employees work in the office or remotely, the one thing they’re all thinking about now is vacations and long weekends. As you gear up for employees’ summer vacation requests, remember the Fair Labor Standards Act has a lot to say about working hours and calculating overtime when employees take a day off during the week.

Understand how pregnancy accommodations differ from other accommodations

04/14/2025

Accommodations under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act can look very familiar at first glance. Like disability accommodations under the ADA and religious accommodations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, pregnancy accommodations under the PWFA require having an interactive conversation with the employee designed to identify what changes the employer can make to accommodate the employee’s needs. But the similarities between the laws end there.

Schedule cut to accommodate pump breaks? Not so fast

04/09/2025

While breaks to express breast milk may disrupt the workday, they’re a legal entitlement meant to allow working mothers the ability to earn a paycheck while providing their child with nourishment widely believed to be the best food for growing infants.

Title alone doesn’t make ‘supervisor’ exempt from overtime

03/17/2025

It’s up to employers to make sure exempt employees perform the genuine duties of an exempt employee. Simply calling someone a manager, executive, professional or highly compensated worker isn’t enough. Their job as performed must meet the test, too.

Court says DOL can use salary level to determine exempt classification

03/03/2025

The Biden administration’s bid last year to raise the white-collar overtime salary threshold from $35,568 per year to $58,656 is dead, the victim of a series of court rulings that said the Department of Labor overstepped its authority by mandating such a big jump. However, one aspect of the OT threshold process stands.

Beware potential huge cost of small wage-and-hour mistakes

02/21/2025

When employers don’t understand wage-and-hour laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act—or worse, when they try to circumvent that law—they can find themselves on the hook for potentially costly penalties. Even relatively small violations can quickly add up.

Obey state & local wage-and-hour laws in addition to the federal FLSA

02/10/2025

Many states and municipalities have wage-and-hour laws that go beyond the mandates of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA sets the floor for wage-and-hour rules, but states and cities are free to set standards that are more generous to employees.

Supreme Court’s employer-friendly ruling: FLSA classification standard is ‘preponderance of the evidence’

01/21/2025

The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 15 unanimously ruled that employers can win lawsuits claiming they misclassified an employee as exempt if a preponderance of the evidence supports their case. The court rejected a much tougher standard—clear and convincing evidence—that would have made it easier for employees to win misclassification lawsuits.

It’s not just the FLSA—monitor and comply with state and local wage-and-hour laws, too

01/15/2025

Make it a point to monitor state and local wage-and-hour laws and prepare in advance to comply.

Prepare for Trump administration’s impact on DOL

01/06/2025

With each change in administration, there’s a change in how federal agencies operate. When President-elect Trump takes office Jan. 20, expect rapid change at the U.S. Department of Labor.