On September 5, 2019, the Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave (“DFML”) issued new guidance on when employers must count 1099-MISC workers as part of their workforce for purposes of the Paid Family and Medical Leave (“PFML”) program. In its press release announcing the new guidance, the DFML stated that the guidance was issued after meetings with representatives from hundreds of businesses across Massachusetts during which the businesses consistently sought clarification on whether they…

After numerous delays and revisions the deadline for filing enhanced EEO-1 reports is now just three weeks away, due to be filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) by September 30.  Component 1 Data should already have been filed…by May 31. The Component 1 data required affected employers to provide a list of employees organized by job category, race, ethnicity, and gender.…

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey released her fourth annual Labor Day Report this week.  As in past years, the report summarizes the AGO’s Fair Labor Division’s enforcement activities over the past year, and provides insight into the office’s priorities and initiatives in the enforcement of the Commonwealth’s wage and hour laws.…

Following both Massachusetts and Maine, New Hampshire will prohibit non-compete agreements for employees who earn an hourly rate that is equal to or lesser than double the federal minimum wage.  The federal minimum wage, which NH follows, is $7.25 per hour.  This means that employers cannot require employees who make $14.50 per hour or less (or just over $30,000 or less) to sign a non-compete agreement as a condition of employment. NH’s new law defines a…

A collective sigh of relief could be heard across the Commonwealth yesterday as anxious business owners, insurers, and employment lawyers heard the news that Massachusetts government leaders had agreed to a three-month delay of the implementation of the first-in-the-nation Paid Family and Medical Leave law. With a July 1 deadline to begin making payroll deductions looming, many questions remained about the law.  Are the deductions pre-tax or post-tax?  (We still don’t know.)  Which…

The Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave has issued proposed regulations which are scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2019. Although some of the proposed regulations may change – and there is a push on by certain business groups to have the start date pushed to October – businesses are well advised to begin learning the ins and outs of the complex new law.  Click the link below to download a summary of…

The SJC, Massachusetts’ highest court, issued its long awaited decision in Sullivan v. Sleepy’s LLC,  SJC-12542 on May 8, 2019. The case should be of concern to businesses which pay individuals fully or primarily by commission, especially in the retail context or in automobile sales where the ruling departs sharply from federal law.…