The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued six new opinion letters this week, covering employer compliance issues under both the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The opinion letters can be found here. The six new opinion letters address the following issues: Compensability of time […]
JY
On Thursday, the California Supreme Court held the federal Fair Labor Standards Act de minimis rule, which limits suits over small increments of unpaid time upon a showing that the bits of time are administratively difficult to record, does not apply to California wage order claims. Limiting its holding to the facts of the case, […]
AM
In this week’s L&E Legal Alert, Jennifer Yee and Josh Woodard take a deeper dive into the Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro where the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the longstanding principle that courts construe FLSA exemptions narrowly and, instead, adopted a “fair reading” standard. For more information, see here.
BN
In a 5-4 opinion issued on April 2nd, the United States Supreme Court held that service advisers at car dealerships are exempt from the overtime pay requirement of the FLSA because they are “salesm[e]n . . . primarily engaged in . . . servicing automobiles.” This ruling is significant for not only the auto industry, […]
TB
Earlier this week the California Supreme Court ruled that when calculating the regular rate of pay for flat rate bonuses an employer must divide the employee’s total pay (including the bonus) by the employee’s total non-overtime hours worked and multiply the result by 1.5 for each overtime hour worked. This diverges from the federal regulations […]
BM
AD
With the 2018 Utah legislative session about to begin, there are more than a few bills that Utah employers may want to keep on their radar. HB 117, for instance, seeks to increase the minimum wage to from $7.25 to $10.25 by July 1, 2018 and to $12.00 by July 1, 2022. This bill may […]
AS
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) abandoned its former test for assessing whether interns qualify as “employees” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Aligning itself with several appellate courts, including the Ninth and Second Circuits, the DOL now embraces a seven-factor “primary beneficiary” test to distinguish employees from bona fide interns. The test enables […]
BN
A unanimous Ninth Circuit Panel on November 15, 2017, joined other circuits in holding that the appropriate methodology for determining minimum wage compliance under the Fair Labor Standards Act during any workweek is by calculation of the pay earned during the entire workweek, rather than the pay earned in each individual hour of the workweek. […]
JR
A Texas federal district court judge invalidated the Department of Labor’s (“DOL’s”) controversial Final Rule that would have made more than 4 million currently exempt employees eligible for overtime. On May 23, 2016, the DOL issued its Final Rule which sought to increase the minimum salary threshold to qualify for the “white collar” overtime exemption […]
BN
JL
Completing and complying with a government supplied “Independent Contractor Certificate” presumptively establishes an independent contractor legal relationship for Arizona state law purposes. See A.R.S. § 23-1601(B). The effect of this Arizona form Independent Contractor Certificate on federal law questions involving independent contractor status is yet to be determined. For more information, click here.
BN
BH
