Category Archives: Wage & Hour

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The Cost of Meal and Rest Break Violations Just Went Up for California Employers

By Damien DeLaney and Brian Noh on Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Wage & Hour

California employers finally have clear guidance on the implications of failing to comply with California’s meal and rest break requirements under the Labor Code. Most businesses in California are familiar with meal and rest break requirements, and, equally so, with the penalty mandated by Section 226.7 of the Labor Code for violations—one hour of pay at the employee’s “regular rate … Continue Reading

Tipped and Non-Tipped Work Back Under the Microscope

By Tiffany D. Hendricks on Posted in Employee Benefits, Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Wage & Hour

The old “80/20 rule” is back again for tipped workers under the latest proposed Final Rule issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) last month. Employers in the service industry, especially those employers who take a tip credit and/or implement a tip pool for their employees, should keep an eye on this latest Final Rule. Under the Trump Administration, the … Continue Reading

Family and Medical Leave: What’s New and What’s Not

By Ryan Krone on Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Medical & Other Leaves, Wage & Hour

Last month, President Biden rolled out “the American Families Plan,” a proposal that would phase in paid family and medical leave for employees with certain medical and family obligations. The proposal would cost around $225 billion over 10 years, which, according to the White House, would be paid mostly by upping taxes on the wealthy. According to a White House … Continue Reading

Not So Fast: DOL Pauses Aspects of FLSA Tip Regulations Final Rule

By Paul J. Rutigliano on Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Wage & Hour

Employers should continue to track and keep records of the percentage of time tipped wage earners spend performing non-tip eligible tasks, as the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has pressed pause on several provisions of the Trump Administration’s 2020 Final Rule addressing Tip Regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Among the provisions paused is one that effectively eliminated … Continue Reading

Mandatory Versus Voluntary Vaccinations: An Employer Guide

By Andrew C. Karter on Posted in Employee Benefits, Employee Handbooks & Policies, Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Employment Discrimination Harassment & Retaliation, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, Wage & Hour, Workplace Safety & OSHA

With COVID-19 vaccines now available to every adult in the United States, employers are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel after a year of uncertainty. But for employers whose workforces spent a year away from the office, a safe return to normalcy presents new legal, practical, and ethical questions.… Continue Reading

ARPA COBRA Premium Subsidy – Time for Employer Plans to Update COBRA Notices

By Beth Alcalde and Amber Roberts on Posted in Employee Benefits, Employee Handbooks & Policies, Wage & Hour

Employers should be busy preparing tailored COBRA continuation coverage notices for certain individuals, addressing complicated election and altered COBRA premium topics that took effect only in recent weeks. Below, we offer practical summaries and specific timing suggestions for the anxiously awaited model notices that have now been released. Notices will soon reach Americans who could receive up to six months … Continue Reading

Growing State and Local Equal Pay Protections

By Brittany Buccellato on Posted in Employee Benefits, Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Employment Discrimination Harassment & Retaliation, Wage & Hour

Pay equity will be a focus of the Biden Administration, as was made clear in the White House Proclamation on Equal Pay Day last week. But states are not waiting on the federal government to act; several are moving forward with pay transparency and equity laws. California is the first state to enact its own pay data reporting law, with … Continue Reading

Is There A New Requirement To Pay Employees on Military Leave?

By Rebecca A. Barrett on Posted in Employment Discrimination Harassment & Retaliation, Medical & Other Leaves, Wage & Hour

A few recent cases may have savvy employers rethinking their military leave policies and choosing to pay employees on short-term military leave to the same extent they voluntarily pay employees benefits for other leaves of absence, such as jury duty, bereavement, and sick leave.… Continue Reading

Employers Should Confirm that 2020 FFCRA Wages Were Properly Reported

By Montaye Sigmon on Posted in Employee Benefits, Medical & Other Leaves, Wage & Hour

Employers were required to distribute and file Forms W-2 by February 1. To the extent they have not already done so, employers should confirm that any leave wages paid in 2020 pursuant to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) were properly reported on Forms W-2.

The Internal Revenue Service provided guidance concerning reporting of FFCRA leave wages in Notice … Continue Reading

Biden Quickly Shifts Immigration Policies – What Employers Need to Know

By Rachel L. Perez on Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Immigration Planning & Compliance, Wage & Hour

With the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr. as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021, immigration reform is on the near horizon. Employers are advised to stay abreast of fluid immigration policies that could have sweeping effects on the sponsorship of various foreign national workers.  In addition, several immigration rules promulgated in the final weeks … Continue Reading

Labor Department Issues New Rule for Independent Contractor Status

By Brian Noh on Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Labor Relations, Wage & Hour

With no clear guidance and different factors being given different weight by different courts, employers have struggled for years with whether workers can be properly classified as independent contractors, rather than employees, under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Now, the Department of Labor has issued a new rule  making clear what factors should be applied and how they should … Continue Reading

Relief is Here Again! PPP2 Stimulus and Business Tax Benefits

By Felicia Nowels, Montaye Sigmon and Bill Sullivan on Posted in Employee Benefits, Wage & Hour

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “CAA”), signed into law on December 27, 2020, is the second-largest federal stimulus package of 2020, following the CARES Act. The CAA provides $900 billion in COVID relief and reserves $284 billion for small businesses through a second round of Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) forgivable loans, or as some are calling it, PPP2. But

… Continue Reading

What Employers Can Expect From a Biden Presidency: Part III, the Winds of Change are Upon Us

By Amy Moor Gaylord on Posted in Labor Relations, Wage & Hour, Workplace Safety & OSHA

With the certification of the Electoral College votes complete, Joe Biden will become President on January 20 and no doubt usher in sweeping changes. If you want to know what to expect, join us for a webinar on Tuesday, January 19 at noon Eastern. In the meantime, here’s a sneak preview:… Continue Reading

UPDATE: Payroll Tax Credits for Paid Leave Under the FFCRA Extended Through March 31, 2021

By Montaye Sigmon on Posted in Employee Benefits, Medical & Other Leaves, Social Media, Uncategorized, Wage & Hour

The pandemic relief package enacted by Congress in late December briefly extended the available payroll tax credits for leave provided under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) through March 31, 2021. The relief package did not extend the requirement to provide paid leave, so after December 31, 2020, employers are not mandated to provide paid sick or family leave … Continue Reading

California Voters OK Independent Contractor Status for App Service Drivers

By Damien DeLaney and Zoe Bekas on Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Employment Discrimination Harassment & Retaliation, Wage & Hour

On November 3, 2020, nearly 60% of California voters approved a ballot measure to create a carve-out from the state’s expansive independent contractor law, AB 5, for drivers on technology platforms such as Lyft, Uber, Doordash, and Postmates. Proposition 22 essentially creates a new category of workers by allowing transportation technology companies to continue to treat drivers on their platforms … Continue Reading

New Obligations for Colorado Employers

By Melissa L. Cizmorris, Adrienne Scheffey and Brian Nugent on Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Employment Discrimination Harassment & Retaliation, Medical & Other Leaves, Wage & Hour

Two new statutes affecting all employers operating in Colorado, the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (EPEWA) and paid sick leave through Colorado’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, will add to the compliance burden of all employers operating in Colorado effective January 1, 2021.

The impact of each new law on employers is discussed below.… Continue Reading

Workplace Changes to Expect Under a Biden Administration: Part I

By Ana C. Dowell, Tiffany D. Hendricks and Sul Kim on Posted in Employee Benefits, Employment Discrimination Harassment & Retaliation, Medical & Other Leaves, Non-Compete & Trade Secret Litigation, Wage & Hour

The networks have called the Presidential election for Joe Biden. Assuming those results are certified and President Trump’s legal challenges fail, what should employers expect under the new administration? In Part I of this two-part series, let’s explore what changes we might see in the workplace from the employment law perspective. In Part II, we will look at changes in … Continue Reading

California’s Sweeping Expansion of Employment Laws

By Ashley Bobo and Marissa Alguire on Posted in Employee Handbooks & Policies, Employment Discrimination Harassment & Retaliation, Medical & Other Leaves, Wage & Hour, Whistleblower & Retaliation Claims, Workplace Safety & OSHA

California has enacted a host of new laws impacting family and medical leave, coronavirus reporting obligations, workers compensation, pay gap data, worker classifications, and more. Here are the highlights, including when employers must abide by the new laws.… Continue Reading

New York State Releases Guidance on the State’s New Sick Leave Law

By Andrew C. Karter on Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Medical & Other Leaves, Wage & Hour

New York employers waiting for clarification on the newly effective New York State Sick Leave Law (“Sick Leave Law”) need wait no longer: on October 20, 2020, the state issued initial guidance – titled the New York State Paid Sick Leave FAQ (the “Guidance”) – interpreting the law.

The Sick Leave Law applies to all private sector workers in the … Continue Reading

Department of Labor Addresses Court Ruling By Issuing New FFCRA Leave Regulations

By Paul J. Rutigliano on Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Medical & Other Leaves, Wage & Hour

In response to a New York federal court striking certain aspects of the Department of Labor’s regulations interpreting the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), last week the DOL issued a revised Temporary Rule (the “Revised Rule”), in some ways resisting and in others yielding to the court’s ruling. In particular, the Revised Rule maintains the DOL’s prior positions … Continue Reading

Employers Not Racing to Implement Employee Payroll Tax Deferral

By Karen M. Buesing and Montaye Sigmon on Posted in Employee Benefits, Wage & Hour

Offering eligible workers the option to suspend the employee share of Social Security payroll taxes through year-end may sound good at the moment, but concerns about next year are leaving many employers wary. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal reported that some of the nation’s largest employers have rejected the President’s payroll tax deferral plan, and Bloomberg reported that no major … Continue Reading

Employees Are Responsible for Logging Remote Work Hours

By Adrienne Scheffey on Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Wage & Hour

Employers have struggled with identifying remote working hours for non-exempt employees juggling telework, child care and/or virtual learning during the pandemic. Employees will now bear the burden of properly recording those hours, under new enforcement guidance issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) in late August.… Continue Reading

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