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FLSA

How can we save on payroll but still have employees work their full schedules?

05/11/2009

Q. We are having trouble making payroll and have asked our employees to give up pay for 20 hours per month while they work their regular schedules. Can we do this?

How should we handle bonuses and overtime?

05/11/2009

Q. We routinely pay our nonexempt employees an annual holiday bonus. What effect, if any, does this have on their regular rates of pay for purposes of calculating overtime?

Houston, we have a problem: $2.5 million for OT violations

05/06/2009

A Houston manufacturing company has paid $1.6 million in back wages to 1,751 employees after a federal investigation revealed the company violated the federal overtime labor law.

Minor adjustments: How to comply with federal teen labor rules

05/05/2009

Your risk of running afoul of the child labor laws has increased, and penalties can be harsh. A recent government study found a surprisingly high percentage of teen employees working longer hours than federal law allows, and also in jobs deemed too dangerous by law. Now, federal and state safety investigators are more interested than ever in child labor compliance.

The 10 Employment Laws Every Manager Should Know

04/28/2009
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Staples gets nailed for breaking overtime law

04/27/2009

A federal jury in Newark has awarded $2.5 million in damages to 343 sales managers employed by office superstore Staples. The court determined the retailer misclassified the managers as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act when they were not.

Turnabout is fair pay: EEOC broke overtime law

04/22/2009

An arbitrator has ruled that the EEOC willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by forcing employees to take comp time instead of overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours a week. The EEOC will be liable for back pay, plus liquidated damages that so far haven’t been determined.

Owner can be personally liable for FLSA violations

04/17/2009

Here’s an important reminder for small companies and their owners: Don’t think that owners aren’t personally liable for wage-and-hour violations simply because they run their operations through a corporation or limited liability company. As the following case shows, employees can personally sue hands-on owners.

DOL to ‘refocus’ on enforcement; add 33% more investigators

04/17/2009

Employers, beware: U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is promising to “refocus the agency on its enforcement responsibilities” in the coming months. The proof: DOL is adding 250 new field investigators—a staff increase of more than a third—to look into noncompliance on wage-and-hour issues.

The impact of partial-day absences on exempt status

04/17/2009

Q. We have a policy that allows exempt employees to take partial days off and have the balance of the day charged against their accrued vacation time in two-hour increments. I have concerns that this arrangement—despite the fact the exempt employees are getting their full salaries—could appear that they’re being treated as hourly employees, thus jeopardizing their FLSA exemption status.