The US Department of Labor has issued new overtime rules. Effective December 1, 2016, most American workers who earn less than $913 per week ($47,476 per year) will be eligible for overtime pay (1.5 times regular hourly pay) when they work more than 40 hours in a week. Key provisions of the rule are as […]
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Issues New Guidelines Regarding Student Interns
One of the hot-button topics these days among employment lawyers is the question of when someone who is learning a new field can be classified as an intern who does not need to be paid, and when the law requires that the worker be paid. The U.S. Department of Labor has relied heavily on a […]
US Dept. of Labor Cracking Down on Misclassification Cases
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has issued a 15-page briefing addressing the difference between an independent contractor and an employee, signaling an increased focus on misclassification – situations in which someone who should be classified as an employee has been treated as an independent contractor instead. Before discussing the DOL’s briefing, I will review […]
Proposed New Regulations Would Raise Income Threshold for Wage & Hour Exemptions
Federal wage & hour laws require payment of overtime to all employees who (1) work more than 40 hours a week and (2) are not exempt as a result of the type of job they perform. Some of the exemptions are discussed here. The income threshold for the exemptions has been the same for many […]
U.S. Supreme Court Hears Security Screening Wage and Hour Case
On October 8, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on a wage and hour case filed by employees of a warehouse business. The business provides storage facilities and order-filling staff for companies that include Amazon. Employees are required to stand in line and undergo a security screening after completing their work shifts and […]
Federal Court Confirms Unpaid Internships Are Illegal
In a ruling last week, a federal judge in New York confirmed what has long been predicted on this website (see here and here): that unpaid internships that are not provided for educational course credit, and that are not otherwise designed primarily to benefit the intern, are illegal. Thus, production assistants who worked as unpaid […]
