May 22, 2023
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Category: Agency Enforcement

DOL Issues Guidance on “PUMP Act” Protections for Nursing Mothers

The Department of Labor (DOL) recently published guidance that interprets the provisions of the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act), which Congress passed late last year. While the expanded protections do not require employers to pay for break time for expressing milk, the guidance provides several examples where break time would be compensable. The guidance also...
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May 10, 2023
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Category: Wage and Hour

Fifth Circuit Revives Legal Challenge to DOL’s Revised Tip Regulations

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has revived a legal challenge to regulations issued by the Biden Administration’s Department of Labor (DOL) in 2021 related to tips and the use of the tip credit under federal wage and hour law. In overturning a federal trial court decision in Restaurant Law Center v. U.S. Department of Labor that denied...
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April 24, 2023
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Category: Compensation

Third Circuit Rules Paid Time Off Is Not Salary for FLSA Purposes

Paid time off (PTO) is not part of an employee’s salary, and therefore an employer did not violate the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by making deductions from FLSA-exempt employees’ paid time off if they failed to meet productivity goals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled recently in a case of first impression. The workers in Higgins...
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April 11, 2023
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Category: Compensation

$8 Million FLSA Settlement Shows Potential Risk of Not Accounting for Restricted Stock Value

An $8 million settlement was recently reached in a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) class action that raised the complex issue of whether or how an employer should include equity compensation when calculating an employee’s regular rate for purposes of overtime pay. The preliminary settlement in Bowlay-Williams v. Google, LLC, No. 21-09942 (N.D. Cal.), resolved claims that an employer violated...
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October 14, 2022
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Category: Government Contracts

Federal Contractor Minimum Wage Rates Will Increase on January 1, 2023

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued notices announcing increases in the minimum wage rates established by two different Presidential Executive Orders (E.O.s), one signed by President Obama (E.O. 13658) and the other signed by President Biden (E.O. 14026), that set a higher minimum wage rate for work performed on certain government contracts. Pursuant to annual escalator clauses contained...
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September 16, 2022
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Category: Wage and Hour

Are Supervised FLSA Settlements Required?

Based largely on an interpretation of the law issued by a federal appeals court 40 years ago, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) takes the position that to be enforceable, private parties cannot settle claims of alleged violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) absent approval either by the agency or by a federal court. But must an FLSA...
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May 27, 2022
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Category: Wage and Hour

House Committee Approves Massive Pro-Worker Overhaul of Fair Labor Standards Act

The Democrat majority on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor recently approved a massive rewrite of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal law that sets wage and hour requirements. Among other things, the bill (H.R. 7701) would put the federal government in charge of enforcing private wage agreements, add burdensome new employer disclosure...
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April 29, 2022
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Category: Wage and Hour

Senate Rejects Nomination of David Weil as Repeat Wage and Hour Administrator

In a political blow to the Biden Administration, the U.S. Senate voted recently against proceeding with a confirmation vote on the President’s nomination of Professor David Weil to serve as the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Administrator. The die was cast when three Senate Democrats joined every Senate Republican in blocking the nomination from going forward. As a result, the...
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March 25, 2022
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Category: Contingent Workers

Federal Court Rules DOL Acted Unlawfully in Rescinding Trump-Era Independent Contractor Rule

A federal district court ruled recently that the Biden Administration’s Labor Department acted unlawfully when it delayed and later repealed Trump-era regulations governing classification of workers as employees or independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The court’s ruling in Coalition for Workforce Innovation v. Walsh effectively reinstates the Trump Administration’s regulatory reforms retroactively. Importantly, the court’s decision...
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