FLSA

OBBBA may trigger overtime requests

07/14/2025

Already, news stories and social media posts are circulating suggesting ways for employees to take advantage of new tax savings even if they don’t currently earn overtime “required under the FLSA.” Because the tax shelter is immediately effective, expect employees to ask HR for ways to take advantage of the savings.

To preserve exempt status, pay employees on a weekly salary basis, not by the day

05/23/2025

The Supreme Court agreed with a highly compensated employee who argued that because he was paid a daily rate, he wasn’t being paid on a salary basis. Now a federal appeals court has applied that logic to another employer.

Bill would cut federal income tax on overtime wages

05/19/2025

Republican legislators in the House of Representatives and Senate have introduced the Overtime Wages Tax Relief Act, which would allow employees to deduct up to $10,000 in overtime pay from their federal income taxes.

New DOL guidance invokes old classification standard, making it easier to treat workers as contractors

05/07/2025

The Department of Labor will no longer enforce its 2024 independent contractor rule, issued during the Biden administration, which favored classifying workers as employees. Instead, it will rewind the classification clock, emphasizing an old standard that makes it much easier to consider workers to be contractors.

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.