By: A. Scott Hecker and Ariel Fenster

Seyfarth Synopsis: Child labor laws remain fertile ground for government enforcement as evaluate key issues for 2024. Late last year, the Wage Hour Division released guidance for new processes to assess greater penalties against companies who violated child labor laws. Companies should take note of the increased financial risks and overall teamwork between

Continue Reading Child Labor Law Penalties on the Rise – Employers Face Various Avenues to Increased Exposure

By A. Scott Hecker

Seyfarth Synopsis: On December 6, 2023, the Biden Administration announced the release of its Fall 2023 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division continues to pursue – with frequent delays – a number of significant rulemakings, including the Division’s proposed increase to the minimum salary level for

Continue Reading The Biden Administration Issued Its Fall 2023 Regulatory Agenda – What Can We Expect From the DOL Wage and Hour Division’s Rulemakings?

The comment period on the U.S. DOL Wage and Hour Division’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees,” closed on November 7, 2023, with interested stakeholders having uploaded over 33,000 submissions.  Now the Department will need to read and respond in preparing its final rule.

Seyfarth

Continue Reading You Asked for It: U.S. DOL Wage and Hour Division Receives Comments on EAP Exemption Rule, Including from Seyfarth Shaw

By: A. Scott Hecker

The long wait for a Senate-confirmed U.S. DOL Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) Administrator is over!  As of October 25, 2023, Jessica Looman has ascended to the top role in one of the Department’s premier enforcement agencies, winning confirmation 51-46.  Operating as Principal Deputy Administrator since January 20, 2021, Ms. Looman’s WHD was active even before

Continue Reading Take Me to Your Leader: Senate Confirms Jessica Looman as U.S. DOL Wage and Hour Division Administrator

By: Rachel V. See, Christopher J. DeGroff, and Andrew L. Scroggins

Seyfarth Synopsis: The EEOC and the Department of Labor Wage Hour Division (WHD) have taken an important step toward inter-agency coordination, committing to information sharing, joint investigations, training, and public outreach. The Memorandum of Understanding between the EEOC and DOL contemplates referring complaints between the two agencies

Continue Reading EEOC and DOL Join Forces – What the Alliance Means for Employers

By: A. Scott Hecker

As one does, I was recently reading U.S. DOL Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) Field Assistance Bulletin (“FAB”) 2023-3 regarding “Prohibitions against the shipment of ‘Hot Goods’ under the Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.”  You may be disappointed to learn that the term “hot goods” does not appear in the FLSA

Continue Reading U.S. DOL’s Wage and Hour Division Says Cool It With The “Hot Goods”

By: Kevin Young, Brett Bartlett, Scott Hecker, Noah Finkel, and Leon Rodriguez

Just days before Labor Day, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) unveiled its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”), aimed at revising the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime exemptions for executive, administrative, and professional employees. While the proposal—the cornerstone of which is a minimum salary

Continue Reading DOL Delivers a Proposed Salary Bump to FLSA Overtime Thresholds for Labor Day

By: Scott Hecker and Ariel Fenster

On this episode of the Policy Matters Podcast, Seyfarth attorneys Scott Hecker and Ariel Fenster discuss the U.S. DOL Wage and Hour Division’s (“WHD”) resource limitations, and how those are impacting WHD priorities, like child labor law investigations and various significant rulemakings. The low number of investigators leads to high stress and low morale

Continue Reading Policy Matters Podcast – Episode 39: Wage & Hour Division’s Resource Challenges Impacting Enforcement, Rulemaking

By: Andrew McKinley, Kyle Winnick & Alex Simon

Seyfarth Synopsis: This latest installment in our series on the Department of Labor’s proposed independent contractor rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act focuses on proposed changes to the profit-or-loss analysis as it relates to workers’ investments in their businesses.

A hallmark of independent contractor status is the ability to exercise

Continue Reading DOL’s Proposed FLSA Independent Contractor Rule: Investment as Indicative of Profit and Loss

By: A. Scott Hecker and Noah A. Finkel

Seyfarth Synopsis: On June 13, 2023, the Biden Administration announced the release of its Spring 2023 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the 2022 Fall Agenda was issued in January 2023). In connection with the Administration’s new regulatory agenda, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division continues to pursue

Continue Reading The Biden Administration Issued Its Spring 2023 Regulatory Agenda . . . in (Late) Spring 2023! What’s in the Works for DOL Rulemaking, Including on a New Minimum Salary for Exempt Employees?