By: Catherine M. Dacre and Christina Jaremus
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division earlier this week published additional employer guidance regarding compliance with the FLSA during the COVID-19 pandemic (“Guidance”). The Guidance is a helpful aide in understanding general wage and hour principles during the crisis. But it leaves some…
By: Michael Steinberg, Hillary Massey, and Barry Miller
Seyfarth Synopsis: Two recent Department of Labor Opinion Letters addressing the FLSA’s outside sales exemption provide helpful guidance and flexibility to employers with unique business models.
In contrast to some of the FLSA’s more byzantine exemptions, the outside sales exemption (“OSE”) is a surprisingly simple…
By: Ala Salameh
Employees under heightened demands to care for their health and families are using time off and sick leave in record numbers. This has left many employers, particularly those qualified as “essential businesses,” short-staffed in a phase of critical need. To fill the void, employers are contemplating a temporary reshuffle of work assignments…
By: Nolan R. Theurer, Ryan McCoy, and Kyle Petersen
Seyfarth Synopsis: Effective April 8, 2020, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) extended an emergency rule suspending “Hours of Service” rules that generally limit the number of hours certain truck drivers can stay on the road. This marks the first time that the…
By: Yao Li and Kevin M. Young
Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division has entered the final phase of issuing a new rule concerning the fluctuating workweek (FWW) method of compensation under the FLSA. The new rule represents the culmination of a regulatory seesaw that began with a Bush…
By: Victoria Vitarelli and Gena Usenheimer
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a clarification of the administrative/production dichotomy, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has held that whether a duty is exempt under the FLSA’s administrative exemption may turn on the employee’s involvement in the enterprise’s “primary” or “central revenue generator.”
As our…
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Second Circuit held that attorneys’ fee awards in FLSA settlements are not limited by principles of “proportionality” between the fees and the amount of the settlement or subject to a 1/3 cap.
In the Second Circuit, settlements in FLSA lawsuits are subject to strict court scrutiny to ensure that…
By Patrick Bannon and Michael Steinberg
Seyfarth Synopsis: An appellate court has ruled that a district court should not authorize notice of an FLSA suit to employees who are ineligible to join the suit because they agreed to resolve disputes exclusively through arbitration. And, the court recognized that sending FLSA notice too broadly can…
By: Alex Passantino, Brett Bartlett, and Noah Finkel
Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 12, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor announced its Final Rule clarifying the issue of joint employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Final Rule adopts a four-factor balancing test and rejects various factors that have fueled recent litigation, e.g.…
By: Alex Passantino
Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division recently issued two opinion letters providing clarity to employers in determining (1) the proper overtime rate of pay for non-discretionary, multi-week bonuses; and (2) whether certain per-project payments are sufficient to satisfy the salary basis test required for the FLSA’s white-collar…
