By Ariel Fenster and Kevin Young
Seyfarth Synopsis. In the final hours of 2020, the U.S. DOL’s Wage & Hour Division issued an opinion letter containing guidance on the compensability of time commuting to the office, or tending to personal matters, for employees primarily working from home. While fact-specific, the letter offers a glimpse into WHD’s current thinking on increasingly
Continue Reading New Year’s Gift From WHD: Guidance on Continuous Workday Rule in the WFH Era
By: Brian A. Wadsworth and Andrew L. Scroggins
As COVID-19 cases surge again in the United States, state and local governments continue to recommend or require remote work arrangements, and some employers have already announced plans to permit remote work to continue well into 2021 and even beyond.
Remote work is not new, and many of its challenges such as
Continue Reading As COVID-Driven Remote Work Arrangements Continue, Wage and Hour Compliance Challenges Grow
By: Andrew McKinley and Louisa Johnson
Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. DOL has confirmed that there is no per se violation of the FLSA’s minimum wage requirement when low-wage employees are reimbursed for their use of a personal vehicle at a reasonable rate that is less than the IRS standard mileage rate and clarified that, in many cases, not all vehicle-related
Continue Reading Reasonable, Not Required: DOL Says IRS Mileage Rate Is Not Only Expense Reimbursement Method
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 questions with respect to more
Continue Reading Thank You, Next Guidance Please — Everything You Need to Know About the Wage and Hour Division’s Latest Guidance on COVID-19 and the FLSA
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 test, with just two parts:
Continue Reading Retail on Wheels & Selling in Someone Else’s Store: DOL Clarifies Application of the Outside Sales Exemption in Unique Settings
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 including posting exempt employees to
Continue Reading It Is A Global Pandemic, But Is It An FLSA Emergency?
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 Hours of Service rules, in
Continue Reading Federal Government Suspends Long-Haul Truckers’ Hours of Service Rules To Help Cope With COVID-19 Pandemic
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 Administration proposal in 2008 that
Continue Reading Fluctuating Workweek + Incentive Pay = No Problem—DOL Sends Final Rule to White House
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 readers are aware, the United
Continue Reading An Employee Not Actually Engaged in the Company’s Core Function—its Primary Revenue Generator—Can Be Administrative Exempt
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 the terms, including the amount
Continue Reading Small Claims? Low Recovery? Big Fees!