FLSA Archives

Feb 26, 2021

Updates to the Minimum Wage Rate and Tip-Credit Regulations: For The New York Restaurant and Hospitality Industry

According to the most recent statistical data available from the U.S. Courts, approximately 14,000 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) cases were commenced during the two-year period ending September 30, 2020, averaging 19 new cases per day. These cases are especially prevalent in the U.S. District Courts encompassing New York City and Long Island (the S.D.N.Y. and E.D.N.Y.), where 13% of all private cases commenced over the same period were labor suits. (See here.) For employers in the New York restaurant and hospitality industry, compliance with wage and hour provisions of the FLSA and New York Labor Law (NYLL) can be… Read more

Feb 23, 2018

New Rules Impact Companies who use Interns and Apprentices

Many employers in the U.S. utilize student interns or apprentices to work on a short-term basis. Oftentimes, companies make such internship or apprenticeship opportunities available without offering pay for the provision of services, and indeed, many times students and others new to the workforce have been more than willing to work without pay for the opportunity to gain valuable job experience and skills they can utilize in the future. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and state and local laws require employers to pay employees for their work. Interns and students, however, may not be considered employees and do… Read more

Aug 30, 2017

Good News for Employers with Over 100 Employees

For employers getting ready to comply with the revised EEO-1 Report, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (“OIRA”) provided good news on August 29, 2017 by announcing that it had indefinitely suspended the new “Component 2” of the EEO-1 Report because of concerns that some aspects of Component 2 “lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues.” “Component 2” was the portion of the revised EEO-1 Report that would have required employers with over 100 employees to submit W-2 and FLSA hours worked information. [See October 11, 2016 Client Alert] The EEOC… Read more

Jun 30, 2017

Department of Labor to Revise Overtime Rule

On June 30, 2017, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) told the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that it plans to revise the 2016 Final Rule (“Final Rule”) that set forth the salary level for employees to qualify for overtime exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). In its brief, the DOL requested that the court “not address the validity of the specific salary level set by the 2016 final rule ($913 per week), which the Department intends to revisit through new rulemaking.” Under the FLSA, employees are exempt from minimum wage and overtime protections if they are… Read more

Jun 28, 2017

Department of Labor Reinstates Opinion Letters

The United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced on June 27, 2017 that it will reinstate issuance of Opinion Letters by its Wage and Hour Division to assist employers and employees in interpreting laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). These opinion letters will replace the more general Administrator Interpretations (“Interpretations”) that have been used by the DOL since 2010. This is a welcome change for employers as Opinion Letters provide much more specific feedback regarding an employer’s employment practices. The previously used Interpretations set forth general guidance related to… Read more

Mar 25, 2014

The Eleventh Circuit Approves Collective Action Waivers

In Walthour v. Chipio Windshield Repair, LLC, Case No. 13-11309 (decided March 21, 2014), the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that employers could enter into enforceable arbitration agreements with their employees in which their employees waived their right to bring class actions or collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). In Chipio, the plaintiffs had sued their employers contending that their employers had failed to pay them the required minimum wage and overtime wages for having worked in excess of 40 hours per week. Each of the employees had entered in an arbitration agreement that provided that… Read more