The California Supreme Court announced that it would decide whether its April 30, 2018 landmark Dynamex decision is retroactive. The Supreme Court’s determination will have a significant impact on companies utilizing independent contractors in California. In Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the California Supreme Court adopted the “ABC Test” to for evaluating contractor classifications under California law. On June 20, 2018, the California Supreme Court denied a petition for…

When an employer permits its employees to participate in a bonus program offered by the employer’s client, based on the work performed for that client, those bonuses do not always qualify as “remuneration for employment” that must be included in the employee’s “regular rate” for purposes of calculating overtime pay due under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has held. Secretary, U.S. Dep’t of Labor v.…

In a welcome reversal of its prior guidance, on July 22, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) concluded that if a truck driver, or driver’s assistant or helper, is completely relieved of duty and is provided with adequate sleeping facilities (including the truck’s sleeping berth), the individual is not “working while riding” and therefore is not entitled to compensation for that time – regardless of how many hours a particular trip lasts or how…

After six months of primarily internal Democratic Party wrangling, on July 18, 2019 the House of Representatives passed the Raise the Wage Act, which, if it became law, would progressively increase the federal minimum wage to $15.00 per hour over a six-year period. The House passage of the Bill comes at a time when an increasing number of states and local jurisdictions already have enacted minimum wage laws well above the federal minimum, which has…

Although the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) includes an overtime exception for employees who reside on the work premises for an “extended” period of time – at least 120 hours in a “workweek” – that exception is inapplicable if an employer’s payroll workweek does not coincide with an employee’s scheduled workweek for at least that many hours. Giguere v. Port Resources, Inc., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 18391 (1st Cir. June 19, 2019). Generally under the…

Nevada’s minimum wage will increase to $12.00 per hour (or $11.00 for employees offered health insurance) by mid-2024, based on a new bill signed into law by Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak. Beginning July 1, 2020, Nevada’s current minimum wage rates of $8.25 (without health insurance) and $7.25 (with health insurance) will increase by $0.75 to $9.00 and $8.00 respectively per hour, and will increase annually at that same rate until reaching $12.00 (or $11.00) per…

Rejecting employer Timberline South’s argument, among others, that FLSA coverage did not apply because all of its timber harvesting occurred only within one state, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals nevertheless concluded that the commuting and meal break times should not have been included in the trial court’s calculation of overtime damages. Secretary of Labor v. Timberline South, LLC, 920 F.3d 1065 (6th Cir. 2019). The Sixth Circuit includes the federal courts in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky…