Insights

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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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Category: Agency Enforcement

OFCCP Submits Proposed Burdensome New Scheduling Letter to OMB for Approval

The Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is asking the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve a revised Scheduling Letter and Itemized Listing that would substantially increase the administrative burden on a federal contractor scheduled for a compliance audit. If OMB approves it, the revised scheduling letter would require covered contractors to submit...
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Category: EEO-1

OFCCP Publicly Releases 2016-2020 EEO-1 Data Reported by Over 19,000 Federal Contractors

The Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has begun releasing the 2016-2020 consolidated Type 2 Employer Information (EEO-1) Report data of 19,400 federal contractors and subcontractors that did not file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) objection to the release of their data. OFCCP’s action is in response to a FOIA request filed last year by the...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

Does Modified EEOC–CA Worksharing Agreement Mean More Dual Charge Investigations?

A change in the worksharing agreement between the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and California’s Civil Rights Department (CRD) suggests that an employer may have to respond to investigations by both agencies stemming from the same charge. The change appears to be driven by the agencies’ discrimination investigations of the company Activision Blizzard, but it has implications well beyond...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

Civil Penalties for Federal Workplace Law Violations Are Significantly Higher for 2023

Pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (the Inflation Adjustment Act), the cost of violating employment-related federal laws and regulations enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has increased by more than 7% for 2023. The Inflation Adjustment Act requires federal...
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Category: Affirmative Action and Diversity

New York City Issues AI Bias Audit Law Implementing Regulations, Sets July 5 Effective Date

New York City, through its Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), has published long-awaited Final Rules implementing the city’s first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence (AI) bias audit law, Local Law 144 of 2021. DCWP will begin enforcing the law on July 5, 2023. The AI bias audit law prohibits covered employers from using an artificial intelligence tool to screen a candidate or employee for a...
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Category: Affirmative Action and Diversity

OFCCP AAP-VI 2023 Certification Update

Our affiliated non-profit association, the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) reported recently that the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has opened its online “Affirmative Action Program Verification Interface (AAP-VI),” through which federal contractors and subcontractors can certify that they developed and maintained Affirmative Action Programs (AAPs) that comply with OFCCP’s rules. Certifications for the 2023 annual...
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Category: Affirmative Action and Diversity

OFCCP Issues New “Pay Equity” Resource

The Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), in conjunction with the agency’s recent Equal Pay Day observation, issued a resource reminding federal contractors to discontinue discriminatory pay policies and practices. The new resource, “Taking a Proactive Approach to Achieving Pay Equity,” is available online here. Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.
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Category: Agency Enforcement

New Biden E.O. Calls for Consideration of “Distributive Impacts and Equity” in Rulemaking

President Biden issued an executive order April 6, 2023, directing federal agencies to consider the “distributional consequences” of regulations to ensure that regulatory initiatives appropriately benefit and do not inappropriately burden disadvantaged, vulnerable, or marginalized communities. E.O. 14094, entitled “Modernizing Regulatory Review,” instructs federal agencies to give greater thought to the “distributive impacts and equity” of proposed regulatory changes, while...
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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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