Obama Administration Taking Actions to “Advance Equal Pay for all Workers”

Skip Sperry February 3, 2016Blog 2 Comments

On the 7th anniversary of President Obama’s signing into law his first piece of legislation as President, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, he announced “several additional actions that his administration is taking to advance equal pay for all workers and further empower working families.”

The most interesting additional action would affect employers with 100 or more employees. These companies would be required, on an annual basis, to report details of what they pay their employees categorized by race,

DoL Publishes Joint Employer Interpretation

Skip Sperry January 23, 2016Blog Leave a Comment

On January 20, 2016, the Wage and Hour Division released an Administrator’s Interpretation concerning joint employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. The interpretation identifies common scenarios in which two or more employers jointly employ an employee and are thus jointly liable for compliance. It pulls together all the relevant authorities – statutory provisions, regulations, and case law – to provide comprehensive guidance on joint employment under FLSA and MSPA so that employers can properly analyze a potential joint employment scenario.

House to Consider Federal Intern Protection Act of 2015 this Week

Skip Sperry January 11, 2016Blog Leave a Comment

On January 7, the House Majority Leader indicated that H.R. 3231, the “Federal Intern Protection Act of 2015,” may be considered in the House this week. The resolution would extend protections against discrimination in the workplace based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability to interns and applicants for internship. Interns are defined in the resolution as individuals who perform uncompensated voluntary service in an agency to earn credit awarded by an educational institution or to learn a trade or occupation.

Start Your Overtime Exemption Analyses Now!

Skip Sperry October 26, 2015Blog Leave a Comment

On July 1, 2015, I informed you that the Department of Labor was initiating a change to the white collar exemption regulations and beginning a public comment period. As the DoL reviews tens of thousands of comments on its proposed changes to the White Collar Exemptions, employers should begin analyzing their exempt positions to determine whether they will still be exempt from overtime after the rule is inevitably issued.

Salaried Means No Overtime, Right? Ask Halliburton

Skip Sperry September 29, 2015Blog Leave a Comment

The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) requires employers to pay most workers minimum wage and overtime to nonexempt workers for work in excess of 40 hours per workweek. Overtime must be paid unless the worker is defined as “exempt” under the Act. Many employers believe that simply paying employees on a salary basis makes them exempt from overtime, but several more factors affect the classification than whether you pay employees a salary or pay them hourly.

New FMLA Poster Required by March 8, 2013

Skip Sperry February 28, 2013Blog Leave a Comment

In conjunction with the new FMLA regulations released earlier this month, the Department of Labor is requiring employers to use an updated FMLA poster to inform employees of their rights under the Act. The new poster informs military service members, airline personnel, and families of their rights to leave.

The new poster is available on the DoL website and can be downloaded at no charge. As mentioned in another post,

BLS Releases Statistics Amid Push to Increase the Minimum Wage

Skip Sperry February 27, 2013Blog Leave a Comment

As the current administration continues its efforts to increase the federal minimum wage rate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its 2012 minimum wage statistics, which are excerpted below:

In 2012, 75.3 million workers in the United States age 16 and over were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.0 percent of all wage and salary workers. 1 Among those paid by the hour, 1.6 million earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

Court Finds that Random Alcohol Tests Don’t Always Violate the ADA

Skip Sperry February 25, 2013Blog Leave a Comment

Last week the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania made a surprising ruling: a company can show that random alcohol test are “job related and consistent with business necessity.” In the first case of its kind, the federal judge rejected the EEOC’s Enforcement Guidelines. Before this ruling, the traditional wisdom, garnered from the guidelines was:

You can test a person for alcohol only if you have reasonable cause or suspicion,

Governor Signs House Bill 22

Skip Sperry February 21, 2013Blog Leave a Comment

On February 20, 2013, Governor Otter signed House Bill 22 into law.

Under current law, large employers must remit income tax withheld on a pay period schedule that overlaps two calendar months. This split monthly filing results in a fiscal reporting year of January 16 in one year to January 15 of the next year. Because employee W-2 reporting is done on a calendar year basis, these employers must file a more complex annual form to reconcile calendar year W-2 information with the fiscal year withholding reporting period.

ABA Releases 2012 FMLA Case Report

Skip Sperry February 20, 2013Blog Leave a Comment

The American Bar Association, in association with the Bureau of National Affairs, released its 2013 Midwinter Meeting Report of 2012 FMLA Cases. This report reviews a comprehensive list of FMLA cases from 2012 and categorizes them into subparts of the FMLA to which they pertain.

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