[Webinar] Wage and Hour Best Practices

August 5, 2022Theresa Green Leave a comment

On Thursday, August 11, 2022 at 1 p.m. EST, join Andrew J. Sommer and Ashley D. Mitchell for a webinar regarding Wage and Hour Best Practices.

Employers are subject to numerous federal and state laws governing employee wages, the hours of work for which an employee must be paid, and the frequency and duration of breaks an employee is entitled to during the workday. Wage and hour issues are further complicated by a shift to remote work during the pandemic. Even the best-intentioned employers could face a multimillion-dollar wage and hour class action. This webinar will give you a blueprint for best practices and common pitfalls to avoid and mitigate the risk of future wage and hour litigation.

Participants in this webinar will learn about: Continue reading →

States and Businesses Seek Injunction to Prevent DOL Overtime Rule From Taking Effect on December 1

September 21, 2016September 21, 2016Kara Maciel Leave a comment

gavel By: Kara M. Maciel and Dan Deacon

On September 20, 2016, business groups and states filed two lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas challenging President Obama’s new overtime rule that is set to take effect December 1, 2016 . Twenty-one states banded together to challenge the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) new overtime exemption rule in States of Nevada et al. v. United States Department of Labor et al, Case No. 1:16-cv-004070., and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, leading a coalition of 50 national and Texas business groups, filed a similar lawsuit in Plano Chamber of Commerce et al. v. Thomas Perez et al. Case No. 4:16-cv-00732. The two lawsuits argue that DOL unconstitutionally overstepped its authority to establish a federal minimum salary level to qualify for the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) white collar exemption and violated the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”).

The New Rule & its Impact on Employers

The long awaited controversial rule was released in May 2016 to the disdain of employers, as we’ve explained in prior blog posts. The most significant change in the final rule is the new $47,476.00 minimum threshold salary required to qualify as an exempt employee, representing more than a 100% increase from the present level and a huge financial undertaking for employers. All employers throughout Continue reading →

Struggling with the New Overtime Rule? Here is One Compensation Option for Newly Non-Exempt Employees

June 15, 2016Lindsay A. DiSalvo Leave a comment

In response to the final overtime rule, which increases the minimum salary level to qualify for the white collar exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), employers must begin to evaluate and alter their current employee classifications and pay structures in preparation for the rule’s December 1^st effective date. For many employers, it may not be possible to raise every exempt employee’s salary level to the new minimum of $47,476.00, over double the current threshold level of $23,660.00. If employers cannot raise salary levels, exempt employees will have to be reclassified as non-exempt employees entitled to overtime pay. This can be a very challenging situation for employers because many exempt employees are expected, and regularly do, work a certain amount of overtime each week to complete the required responsibilities of their positions. Furthermore, exempt employees are used to being paid on a salary basis with some level of certainty in their take home pay.

To address these issues and create some predictability for both the employer and the employee, one option is to implement a compensation structure that pays certain non-exempt employees an annual salary factoring in a certain amount of overtime. The FLSA permits non-exempt employees to be paid on a salary basis as long as Continue reading →