Under a new proposed rule by the United States Department of Labor, all employees making under $1,059 per week in the United States would be eligible for overtime pay. If adopted, this would potentially give an additional three million employees eligibility for overtime, when they would otherwise be excluded. This helps to close certain loopholes that employers have used to keep employees from earning overtime they might otherwise be entitled to. Continue reading “Proposed DOL Rule Would Make 3 Million Eligible for Overtime”
Tag: overtime
Employer Permitted to Force Employee Weekend Overtime
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has recently issued an advice memo stating that an employer could force its employees to work overtime on the weekend. This was notwithstanding an extant union contract that had vague language with respect to whether the employer could force its employees to work overtime. The NLRB memo is a good reminder that employment contracts, including union contracts, need to be carefully worded to avoid exploitation by an employer or employee. Continue reading “Employer Permitted to Force Employee Weekend Overtime”
The Supreme Court and The Debate Over Joint Employment
On January 8th of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari to take another look at the case of DirecTV, LLC v. Hall. The issue in this case was whether or not the Fourth Circuit misinterpreted the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which ultimately decides minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, youth employment, and other employment issues. The FSLA issue the Supreme Court declined to hear is joint employment.
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Employees May Receive Paid Time Off in Lieu of Overtime Pay
Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a law that allows private-sector employers to allow employees to earn Paid Time Off (PTO) instead of overtime pay. H.R. 1180, the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017, amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Under the act, an employee may receive “compensatory time off at a rate not less than one and one-half hours” for each hour of work that overtime pay is required. This means that, instead of receiving overtime pay in their next paycheck, an employee may earn PTO that they may use at a later date that is approved by the employer.
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Bloomberg Settles Overtime Wages Case in New York
Recently, the New York Post reported that Bloomberg, a financial media company, has agreed to pay $3.2 million in a settlement for overtime wages. The Manhattan federal class-action lawsuit was initiated by customer service employees who claimed they were not compensated for overtime.
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LinkedIn to Pay Millions for Overtime Labor Violations
The popular professional social media networking service, LinkedIn, has recently agreed to pay almost $6 million in unpaid wages and damages to 359 current and former employees.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, an investigation found LinkedIn Corp. in violation of overtime and record-keeping rules pursuant to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). It said the violations occurred at company branches in California, Illinois, Nebraska and New York.
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Federal Bill Proposal Seeks To Raise Overtime Threshold
In a combined effort to ensure overtime protections for low- and mid-wage salaried workers, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, along with eight Senate officials, recently introduced the Restoring Overtime Pay for Working Americans Act.
Presently, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) guarantees a minimum wage and overtime pay for private-sector U.S. workers. However, many workers are considered “exempt” from the law, partly because of a salary threshold, $23,660 per year or $455 per week, which is specifically directed at managers and “professional” employees.
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