On May 5, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a Final Rule withdrawing the DOL’s January 7, 2021 Final Rule regarding the classification of independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has given investigators greater discretion in when to seek liquidated damages – double the amount of back pay an employer owes - in pre-litigation settlements for employers’ violations of the overtime or minimum wage provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
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On February 25, 2021, the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General (“DOL”) released an audit report (“Audit Report”) with a recommendation that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issue mandatory COVID-19 safety rules for employers.
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The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) proposed a new rule, amending the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) to make it easier to determine whether workers are independent contractors or employees and covered under federal minimum wage and overtime laws.
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A New York federal court invalidated substantial portions of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Rule issued earlier this year narrowing the definition of “joint employer” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
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On June 24, 2020, the Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued a Field Assistance Bulletin providing that effective July 1, 2020, the DOL will no longer pursue pre-litigation liquidated damages in all cases in its administratively resolved investigations.
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On May 19, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) issued a final rule that withdrew the “partial list of establishments” it previously viewed as having “no retail concept,” which disqualified the employees of certain commissioned retail and service establishment from the Fair Labor Standard Act’s (“FLSA”) overtime exemption.
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On April 10, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued interim guidance clarifying OSHA’s recordkeeping requirement as it relates to recording cases of COVID-19.
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On April 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division published its temporary rule issuing regulations to implement and clarify protections provided by the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (“EPSLA”) and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (“EFMLEA”), which are both part of the recently passed Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (“COVID-19”).
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The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a proposed tip-pooling rule that would give certain employers more flexibility in distributing pooled tips. Under the proposed rule, employers who do not take a tip credit and pay employees the full minimum wage may include employees who are not customarily and regularly tipped employees, such as back-of-house employees like dishwashers and cooks, in a mandatory tip pool.
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The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced its final overtime rule which updates the earnings thresholds necessary to exempt executive, administrative, or professional employees (“white collar exemptions”) from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.
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The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (“DOL”) has set forth new guidelines for compensating long-haul truck drivers for off-duty time spent in sleeper berths. Under a recent DOL opinion letter, employers need not pay drivers for time they are relieved of all duties and permitted to sleep in adequate sleeping facilities such as a sleeper berth.
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This week, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a proposed rule to alter the standard for determining joint-employer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The DOL proposes a straightforward, four-factor test that would consider whether the potential joint employer actually exercises the power to:
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The United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) plans to increase the salary threshold for so-called “white collar overtime exemptions,” from $455 per week ($23,660 per year) to $679 per week ($35,308 per year), and to increase the annual compensation requirement for a separate class of “highly compensated employees” from $100,000 to $147,414 per year.
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In the ongoing journey towards a possible rewrite of the white-collar exemptions contained in the “Overtime Rule,” the Department of Labor recently announced an upcoming series of listening sessions being held around the country to gather input from all those interested, primarily employers.
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On January 5, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) adopted a new test for determining when interns are employees who must be paid in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Although federal courts over the last several years had rejected the Obama administration’s rigid and mandatory six-prong test for whether someone can by properly classified as an unpaid intern under the FLSA, the DOL has now formerly adopted a more flexible primary beneficiary/economic reality test.
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On October 30, 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) appealed the federal district court decision striking down the Obama-Era white collar exceptions, which proposed raising the salary level at which companies must pay overtime to employees from $23,660.00 to $47,476.00 per year. The DOL plans to ask the court to stay the appeal while considering whether to re-write the overtime rule.
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The same judge who preliminary enjoined the Obama-era Department of Labor (“DOL”) Final Rule raising the minimum salary level for overtime exemption two weeks before it was set to take effect on December 1, 2016, struck down the rule on August 31, 2017. The rule would have raised the minimum salary for an individual to be exempt from overtime pay from $455 per week ($23,660 annually) to $913 per week ($47,476 annually). Judge Amos L. Mazzant of the U. S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas, who was nominated to the bench by former President Obama in 2014, granted summary judgment for the groups of plaintiffs that challenged the rule, consisting of the Plano Chamber of Commerce, more than 50 business groups from Texas and across the nation, and 21 other states.
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A 2015 report by the White House Council of Economic Advisors found that retirement accounts were reduced $17 billion a year because of biased advice from financial advisors. The Department of Labor (“DOL”) Fiduciary Rule, set to be enacted this year, seeks to eliminate these losses by placing a fiduciary duty on financial professionals to put the interest of their clients first and eliminate conflict of interest trades – at least when it comes to pre-tax retirement accounts. However, the Rule, previously set to go into effect on April 10, 2017, is facing probable delay and possible rescission. This article provides background on the proposed Fiduciary Rule, discusses how it might impact company Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) plans and provides insight to the Trump Administration’s delay on the rule.
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