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McBrayer Blogs

Showing 28 posts in Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

DOL Moves to Raise Salary Floor in Proposed Overtime Rule

Posted In Department of Labor ("DOL"), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), overtime rule

The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed to raise the salary threshold—a long-anticipated yet dreaded move that will affect how many employers pay their workers. More >

A Day in the Life Working from Home – What Time is Compensable?

Posted In Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), remote work, Wage and Hour, work from home

Nearly three years after it suddenly became a necessity for many employees to work from home, it’s clear that teleworking isn’t going anywhere. Many employers have chosen to allow for remote or hybrid work arrangements—but in the “work from home” era, issues like timekeeping for non-exempt employees can get a little fuzzy. We’ll walk you through a teleworking employee’s day and give you the rundown on what is compensable time under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), what isn’t, and tips for making sense of it all. More >

Ninth Circuit Ruling Portends Changes for Compensable Time

Posted In Employment Law, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the time employees spend booting up computers and launching their timekeeping system is compensable time under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) when these activities are integral and indispensable to an employee’s principal work activities.  More >

DOL Quietly Moves to ‘All Liquidated Damages, All the Time’ Footing

Posted In Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) has always provided for liquidated damages for violations, but in the past, the Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) generally pursued the liquidated damages only when forced to litigate. Liquidated damages are effectively punitive in nature and amount to the full amount of back wages, doubling the hit to employers who find themselves in such a predicament. In recent years, however, the WHD has steadily increased the frequency with which it assesses these damages, which proves to be double the burden on employers. More >

New Overtime Rules May Be Here Sooner than Expected

Posted In Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Overtime Pay

The timeline for adoption of the Final Rule of proposed changes to the white collar overtime exemption has been hard to pin down. In early November of 2015, Solicitor of Labor M. Patricia Smith, during a panel discussion at the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Conference in Philadelphia, mentioned that the proposed changes would not be issued until late 2016, leading many to believe that they would not take effect until 2017. Later that month, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Division estimated that the rule would be published in July 2016, not quite as late as earlier implied. Then, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez stated in December in an interview with Bloomberg BNA that it seemed likely to him that the new rule would be out by spring of 2016. In February of 2016, Smith reiterated the Wage and Hour Division’s projected timeline of a July 2016 publication with an effective date 60 days later. On March 14th, 2016, the Department of Labor made the surprising move of sending its overtime rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”), which means that all bets are off and the rule may here sooner than predicted. More >

Employers, Don’t Sleep on Your Rights

Posted In Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

There are ways of gaining a tactical advantage in Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) litigation, but sleeping on one’s rights in such a circumstance is not one of them. NPC International, Inc., a Pizza Hut franchisee, learned this the hard way in the Sixth Circuit in August. If the case of Skylar Gunn v. NPC International proves anything, it proves that courts will frown upon employers gaming the legal system to the detriment of employees bringing claims. More >

Surprise! That Independent Contractor is an Employee!

Posted In Department of Labor ("DOL"), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Independent Contractors

The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has given employers some bitter pills to swallow lately, especially in light of the proposed rule concerning new restrictions on the white collar overtime exemption. With a new set of guidance on the classification of independent contractors, the streak of DOL heartburn for employers continues unabated. More >

ALERT - Department of Labor Set to Change Overtime Exemption Regulations under the FLSA

Posted In Department of Labor ("DOL"), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Overtime Pay

On July 6th, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with the potential to affect an untold number of employers. The proposed rule, published in the Federal Register at 80 FR 38515, drastically changes the DOL’s interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act with respect to overtime exemptions. The current rule, put in place in 2004, exempts employees with salaries of at least $455 a week ($23,660 a year) and who perform executive, administrative, professional, outside sales and computer duties from overtime regulations. More >

Complaining to the Boss? The Second Circuit Says That's Protected

Posted In EEOC, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”)

In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corporation that oral complaints are protected by anti-relation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), but it did not address a vital question: must those complaints be “filed” with a government agency to receive protection against retaliation, or will simple oral complaints to an employer trigger such provisions?[1] The Second Circuit recently moved to fill that gap, ruling in Greathouse v. JHS Security, Inc. that merely “filing” an oral complaint with an employer is enough to trigger anti-retaliation provisions of the FLSA[2]. More >

The Big and Small Implications in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association

Posted In Department of Labor ("DOL"), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), U.S. Department of Labor

There are two important takeaways from Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association,[1] one with a broad scope and the other much narrower. The broader ruling exempts agency interpretations of laws and regulations from any notice and comment requirements under the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”), allowing agencies to substantially alter interpretations without notice. On a different note, however, is the finding that Department of Labor (“DoL”) Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) classification interpretations are subject to change at any moment. More >

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