Wage & Hour

Expert Analysis

• Wage And Hour Notifications Under New Calif. Email Law

  

  To address the shift to remote work, a new California law authorizes employers to email required wage and hour notifications to employees, providing an opportunity for businesses to reaffirm their policies and potentially shield against class action liability, says Michael Nader at Ogletree.

• College Athlete Employee Status Would Raise Novel Issues

  

  A recent declaration that the National Labor Relations Board's office of general counsel now considers certain college athletes employees, if formally adopted by the NLRB, could bring new questions for colleges and athletes on workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, tax liability and more, says Mike Ingersoll at Womble Bond.

• Employers: Beware Tip Credit Violations Under New DOL Rule

  

  The U.S. Department of Labor’s new regulation, which penalizes employers that improperly take worker tips, even for good faith or first-time offenses, means hospitality employers should reexamine their tip credit policies and prepare for increasingly assertive DOL enforcement, says William Pokorny at Franczek.

• 5th Circ. OT Ruling Widens Path For Employer FLSA Liability

  

  The Fifth Circuit’s recent decision in Hewitt v. Helix Energy, holding that a highly compensated oil rig worker qualified for overtime, throws certain Fair Labor Standards Act exemptions into flux and creates enormous liability potential for employers who have historically paid very high day rates, say Meghan McCaig and Peter Hall at Holland & Knight.

• What 6th, 8th Circ. Rulings Mean For FLSA Collective Actions

  

  The Sixth and Eighth Circuit’s recent Fair Labor Standards Act decisions in Canaday v. Anthem and Vallone v. CJS Solutions, respectively, extending the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2017 Bristol-Myers specific jurisdiction precedent, provide employers with powerful ammunition to limit the size and scope of wage and hour collective actions, say Charles Thompson and Ryan O'Connor at Greenberg Traurig.

• Job App Compliance As State Fair Hiring Laws Proliferate

  

  As more states and localities continue to pass fair hiring laws that bar employers from soliciting certain information from candidates at the prehire stage, businesses may need to eliminate employment application questions related to age, criminal history records, prior salary and more, say Carly Baratt and Nancy Popper at Epstein Becker.

• PAGA Ruling Unlocks Manageability Defense For Employers

  

  A California appellate court’s recent first-of-its-kind holding in Wesson v. Staples recognized that claim manageability issues can apply to Private Attorneys General Act cases, opening a path for employers to argue that individualized inquiries and other time-consuming elements make a case too burdensome, say Thomas Kaufman and Harrison Thorne at Sheppard Mullin.

• How Calif. High Court Rulings Narrow Prevailing Wage Law

  

  Two recent rulings by the California Supreme Court in Mendoza v. Fonseca McElroy Grinding and Busker v. Wabtec should come as good news to public works construction contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, as they clarify and limit the scope of the state’s prevailing wage law in several important ways, say Laurence Phillips and Tyler Paetkau at Procopio Cory.

• What Forced Arbitration Ruling Means For Calif. Employers

  

  As a result of the Ninth Circuit's surprising, peculiar decision this week in Chamber of Commerce v. Bonta, employers in California once again face the very real prospect of incurring criminal and civil penalties for simply requesting that employees and applicants agree to arbitrate future disputes, says Anthony Oncidi at Proskauer.

• Mass. 7-Eleven Case Carries Broad Employment Ramifications

  

  The 7-Eleven worker classification case pending in Massachusetts' highest court calls franchising models into question and is likely to have repercussions beyond the Bay State as various local, state and federal regulators try to apply employment law to business relationships that may not fall neatly into either the employee or independent contractor category, says Hugh Murray at McCarter & English.

• A Return-To-Work Refresher On Compensating Travel Time

  

  With more workers heading back into the workplace and business trips beginning to make a comeback, employers should review the Fair Labor Standards Act, case law and U.S. Department of Labor guidance to ensure they are properly compensating for all travel time, including certain commuting scenarios, say Daniel Stern and Elizabeth Voss at Dykema.

• Steps To Avoid Pandemic-Related Wage And Hour Claims

  

  A Washington federal court’s recent ruling in Hesketh v. Total Renal Care shows how the COVID-19 pandemic has created new areas of potential wage and hour liabilities, but employers can avoid class actions by reviewing their policies on remote work, record-keeping, worker classification and more, says Kathleen Anderson at Barnes & Thornburg.

• 3rd Circ. Ruling Shows Employer Risk In Unpaid Military Leave

  

  The Third Circuit's recent decision in Travers v. FedEx — which mirrors the Seventh Circuit's broad interpretation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act in White v. United Airlines — could proliferate litigation concerning whether employers must offer paid military leave if compensation is provided for comparable nonmilitary leaves, say Richard Rosenblatt and Jason Ranjo at Morgan Lewis.