Although it may have intended for a customer charge to be treated as an administrative overhead fee separate from gratuities paid to its employees, a country club’s reference to the amount as a “service charge” in some documents necessarily required
Continue Reading Service Charge or Administrative Fee? A Distinction With a Difference, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Holds
Wage & Hour Law Update
Latest from Wage & Hour Law Update
Auto Technicians’ Pay Structure May Have Been Convoluted, But It Was Still a Bona Fide Commission Plan, Seventh Circuit Concludes
Although the employer’s pay system for its auto repair technicians was complicated and at times redundant, it nevertheless constituted a bona fide commissions compensation method subject to exemption from the overtime pay provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA),…
Continue Reading Auto Technicians’ Pay Structure May Have Been Convoluted, But It Was Still a Bona Fide Commission Plan, Seventh Circuit Concludes
DOL Proposes Regulations Implementing $15 Per Hour Federal Contractor Minimum Wage Executive Order
On April 27, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14026, raising to $15 per hour — with increases to be published annually — the minimum wage certain federal contractors must pay workers performing work “on or in connection with” a…
Continue Reading DOL Proposes Regulations Implementing $15 Per Hour Federal Contractor Minimum Wage Executive Order
In-flight Meal Periods for Security Officers Were Not Compensable, Fifth Circuit Holds
A security company did not violate the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) when, under its meal-period policy, it automatically deducted an hour of pay from its security officers on certain flights, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has held. Dean…
Continue Reading In-flight Meal Periods for Security Officers Were Not Compensable, Fifth Circuit Holds
Bonuses Prompted by Federal Tax Reform and Pay for Charitable Volunteer Time Were Properly Excluded From Employees’ Overtime Calculation, Fourth Circuit Holds
Affirming the dismissal of wage and hour claims against “big box” retailer Lowe’s, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that company bonuses, provided to employees following 2018 revisions to federal tax law, were rightly excluded from the “regular rate”…
Continue Reading Bonuses Prompted by Federal Tax Reform and Pay for Charitable Volunteer Time Were Properly Excluded From Employees’ Overtime Calculation, Fourth Circuit Holds
Ninth Circuit Tosses $102 Million Award Against Walmart Alleging California Wage Statement and Meal Break Violations
In a significant victory for California employers, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently reversed a $102 million award against Walmart, in a suit alleging that the retailer violated the California Labor Code’s wage statement and meal-break…
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Tosses $102 Million Award Against Walmart Alleging California Wage Statement and Meal Break Violations
Alaska Supreme Court Cools Down Standard for Establishing State Law Wage & Hour Exemptions
Answering the first of two certified questions from an Alaska federal court and overturning nearly 30-year-old precedent, the Alaska Supreme Court has held that an employer need only establish an exemption under the Alaska Wage and Hour Act by a…
Continue Reading Alaska Supreme Court Cools Down Standard for Establishing State Law Wage & Hour Exemptions
New Secretary of Labor Hints at Increased Minimum Salary for Overtime Exemptions
Will the DOL again seek to raise the minimum salary level for exempt “white collar” employees?
In testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee on June 10, 2011, Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh stated that the Department of Labor…
Continue Reading New Secretary of Labor Hints at Increased Minimum Salary for Overtime Exemptions
Agricultural Exemption Does Not Apply to Activities Entirely Away from the Farm
To paraphrase the lyrics of the classic nursery song, Old MacDonald had a farm and on that farm he had a cow – and a duck, horse, and chicken (e-i-e-i-o). And, of course, to tend to that livestock Old MacDonald…
Continue Reading Agricultural Exemption Does Not Apply to Activities Entirely Away from the Farm
Rhode Island Joins List of States Enacting $15 Minimum Wage Law
On May 20, 2021, Governor Dan McKee signed an amendment to Rhode Island law that will see the Ocean State’s minimum wage increase to $15.00 per hour by 2025. Beginning January 1, 2022, Rhode Island’s minimum wage will increase from…
Continue Reading Rhode Island Joins List of States Enacting $15 Minimum Wage Law