Effective October 6, 2020, Pennsylvania’s Construction Industry Employee Verification Act will require the use of the E-Verify system for all construction industry employers. The Act defines the construction industry as those who engage in the erection, reconstruction, demolition, alteration, modification, custom fabrication, building, assembling, site preparation and repair work or maintenance work done on real property or premises under a contract, including work for a public body or paid for from public funds.  The Act…

More than a year ago, in June 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) proposed new regulations under the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act (PMWA) that would increase significantly the minimum salary requirement for the white-collar overtime exemptions under this law. The PMWA is the state-law equivalent of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  The PMWA and FLSA both place minimum wage and overtime pay obligations for Pennsylvania employers.  While the laws’ requirements…

Not all 401(K) and other qualified plans allow hardship withdrawals, but if your plan does allow hardship withdrawals, make sure it is compliant with the new rules finalized in September.   All of the changes are optional for a qualified retirement plan’s 2019 Plan year.  Operational compliance must begin January 1, 2020.  Key changes outlined in the regulations include: In the past, participants were required to suspend deferrals to his/her 401(k) if he/she took a hardship…

On September 24, the U.S. Department of Labor released its final rule changing the minimum salary requirements for the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “white-collar” overtime exemption regulations. As you may recall, the DOL issued a proposed rule in March 2019 that included increases to the minimum salary requirements and invited public comments.  This process came after the DOL’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to more than double the same minimum salary requirements near the end of the…

A lot of times, determining whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee is tough.  Different laws have different standards, and government agencies and the courts often apply different tests in addressing this question.  Under any test, the analysis is highly fact intensive, and the consequences of misclassification can be steep. Luckily, the National Labor Relations Board recently made clear that the misclassification of a worker as an independent contractor, when the worker…

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on September 11, 2019 that it will not be seeking renewal for collection of EEO-1 Component 2 pay data, which requires employers with 100 or more employees to submit employee pay data on the new EEO-1 on an annual basis. Moving forward, the EEOC stated it would seek authorization for continued collection of only the EEO-1 Component 1 data, with 2019 data submissions due in March 2020. This welcome…

As the summer begins to wind down, the first whispers of fall rippling through cool evening breezes are a welcome reminder that school is back in session. That means it’s an opportune time for Pennsylvania’s 500 public school districts and many charter schools to examine their policies governing employee reporting of arrests and convictions and their handling of arrest and conviction reports. Pennsylvania has long required that school district employees self-report arrests or convictions for…