Employers under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) have to pay their workers for all time worked–except when you don’t. Wait. Employees can work and not be paid? Well, not exactly. Let’s do a quick review of the General Rule: You have to pay your workers for all hours they work. For hours 1-40 […]
Note to Self: You Can’t Keep Your Employees’ Tips
If you employ “tipped” workers, I have good news and not-so-good news. OK, maybe it’s not really good news, but it’s interesting. The sort of good news is that Congress passed a budget and so the federal government was not shut down. (Yawn– I know). If you’re an employment law nerd like me, you find […]
Surprise! Your Interns Might Really Be Employees…
Many companies hire students as interns. Many employers take for granted that interns do not have to be paid or given benefits. Interns learn while on the job and everyone’s happy, right? Well, hold on a minute. Just last month, the DOL published Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2018-2 (not exactly an attention-grabbing name, I know) in […]
Is Uber Driving its Own Workers Away?
You may have seen my series of posts on Wal-Mart back in 2014. You can click here, here and here for some of them. I spent as much time as I did with Wal-Mart because, well, they have had so much to teach employers, particularly what not to do. Wal-Mart is not the only such […]
Is it the End for the New White-Collar Exemption Rules?
Back in November a federal judge put the Obama Administration’s overtime rules on hold. I previously posted about that here. But here is the quick recap: The DOL, at President Obama’s instruction, raised the minimum salary level for certain “white-collar” exemptions. Currently, the minimum salary level is $455 per week. The new rules were to […]