New Overtime Regulations Will Result In Many More Workers Becoming Entitled To Overtime On May 18, 2016, President Obama announced the publication of the U.S. Department of Labor's final rule ("Final Rule") updating the overtime regulations, and providing that employees who earn less than $47,476 annually will be entitled to overtime. The federal Fair Labor [...]
FLSA case ends with $2.9M in back pay owed Now's a good time to consider what might be missing from your timekeeping records. A recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court throws the spotlight on recordkeeping. In the collective action case, Tyson Foods didn't keep track of how long certain employees spent putting on and [...]
Successful pilot program expected to be widely adopted Some employers may be hearing from the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) about potential problems with new hire reporting. That's because OCSE plans to expand a pilot program to increase compliance with new hire reporting. Under the pilot program, the OCSE sent letters to employers who [...]
DEPT. OF LABOR WANTS TO ENSURE VIOLATIONS AREN'T REPEATED Companies that actively try to evade Fair Labor Standards Act provisions are playing with fire – especially because the Dept. of Labor (DOL) has recordkeeping requirements in place to try to prevent just that kind of thing. Take Colmonero's Pallets Inc., a pallet manufacturer in Phoenix. [...]
Salary threshold increasing to $913 per week The new overtime regs are here, and so are big changes for Payroll practitioners trying to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). For employees to be exempt from the overtime provisions of the FLSA, their wages will need to be at least $913 per week. That [...]
Company held overtime hours until less busy workweeks One company's attempts to find an alternative to overtime pay led to a big fine – and a warning from the Dept. Of Labor (DOL) that others should heed. Investigators for the DOL found that Progressive Business Systems Ltd. Had a practice of banking employees' hours when [...]
SALARY LEVEL FOR WHO'S EXEMPT HAS INCREASED TO $913 PER WEEK In addition to releasing final regs changing the requirements for who's exempt from overtime, the Dept. of Labor has issued guidance that contains further details. Here's an overview of the guidance broken down by sector. Private employers Now that the salary level has increased [...]
Company must supply workers with independent contractor fact sheet Plus, $38,000 in back wages must be paid to misclassified workers The Dept. of Labor (DOL) wants to be sure employers are correctly classifying employees and independent contractors (IC). It's the latest strategy to boost compliance: explaining the difference to workers themselves. That's what happened when [...]
Asking non-citizens for more documents results in trouble The Immigration and Nationality Act requires a lot from employers. And even small mistakes – like asking for the wrong documents – can get companies in big trouble. One recent example: A Glendale, CA, Macy's location was hiring for an open position. The candidate it chose was [...]
Hours would have added up to over 40 in a workweek For the purposes of calculating overtime, the Dept. of Labor doesn't care where employees work – just who they're working for. And that can lead to a lot of confusion for multisite employers. A phoenix-area restaurant owner learned that the hard way when it [...]
