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Co-authored by Kara Goodwin and Noah Finkel

Seyfarth Synopsis: The Ninth Circuit recently joined the Second, Fourth, Eighth, and D.C. Circuits in holding that the relevant unit for determining minimum-wage compliance under the FLSA is the workweek as a whole, rather than each individual hour within the workweek.

Yes, Virginia, contrary to the contentions of some plaintiffs’ counsel, the FLSA…
Continue Reading 9th Circuit’s Xerox Decision Copies Sister Circuits in Affirming Workweek Standard for FLSA Compliance

Co-authored by Kerry Friedrichs and Kyle Petersen

Seyfarth Synopsis: A common feature of many a commission plan is the recoverable draw that is offset against future commissions. The DOL has long held this is a permissible way to satisfy the minimum wage requirement. In a recent decision, the Sixth Circuit agreed, up to a point—the point of termination. …
Continue Reading Sixth Circuit Cries Foul on Post-Termination Repayment of Recoverable Draw

Co-authored by Hillary J. Massey and Kerry Friedrichs

The Ninth Circuit this week blessed an employer’s policy of rounding employee time punches to the nearest quarter hour, affirming summary judgment in favor of the company on an employee’s challenge to the rounding policy under the FLSA and the California Labor Code.

“This case turns on $15.02 and one minute.” From…
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Roundly Supports Time Punch Rounding

Authored by Alex Passantino

‘Twas the week before Christmas, 2-0-1-5
When the poetry elves on the blog came alive.
Crafting their rhymes with a purpose so clear:
Presenting the wage-hour gems of the year.

In January, for new regs in this year our breath bated.
Then for six painful months, we speculated and waited.
And just as…
Continue Reading I’m Dreaming of a White Collar: 2015 Year in Review

Authored by Alex Passantino

It’s the week before Christmas, and we’ve accepted our mission,
The annual wage hour “sum-up” composition.
And to start it all off, we’ve got something nice,
‘Cause the Supreme Court addressed wage and hour stuff twice.

The year started out with the first one of those;
As Justice Scalia answered “What counts as clothes?”
With…
Continue Reading Integral Clothes and Mistletoes: 2014 Year in Review

Authored by Noah Finkel

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a tough week last week.  It wasn’t just their loss to the Detroit Lions.  Defeats on Sundays are something with which the Bucs have grown accustomed.  Rather, last week the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Bucs’ attempt to have an adverse judgment against themselves would not end a…
Continue Reading Can’t Win For Losing? Try Offering Complete Relief, Not Rule 68

Co-authored by Barry Miller and Taron Murakami

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a pair of cases addressing the Department of Labor’s reversal in its position regarding the exempt status of mortgage loan officers.  The Justices’ questions reflected concern about the DOL flip-flopping on this issue, but they also expressed a reticence to issue a broad ruling that…
Continue Reading Angst, Administration and Interpretation: Supreme Court Hears Arguments on DOL’s Flip-Flopping on Exempt Status of Mortgage Loan Officers

Authored by Kyle Petersen

For years, employers have been frustrated by lengthy and costly FLSA litigation prompted by little more than conclusory allegations that the plaintiff and a putative class were not paid for all of their overtime work. Since the Supreme Court clarified the federal pleading standards in Twombly and Iqbal, the doors to the courthouse may be…
Continue Reading Not So Fast: 9th Circuit Puts the Brakes on Boilerplate, Bare Bones FLSA Complaints

Authored by Jacob Oslick

The days of cursory pleading in FLSA cases have ended. That’s the message the Third Circuit sent a few days before Labor Day, when it issued Davis v. Abington Memorial Hospital.  In Davis, the Third Circuit held that it wasn’t sufficient for the plaintiffs, a group of nurses, to generically allege that they “typically”…
Continue Reading The Third Circuit: The FLSA Requires Fair Pleading Standards

Co-authored by Robert S. Whitman and Howard M. Wexler

Last summer, the Second Circuit issued a flurry of decisions clarifying the pleading standard in FLSA cases.  In one of those cases, Dejesus v. HF Management Services, LLC, the court held that, in order to state a valid overtime claim after the Supreme Court’s decisions in Iqbal and Twombly,…
Continue Reading No Bones About It: Courts Within Second Circuit Continue to Dismiss “Bare Bones” FLSA Complaints