Co-authored by Brett Bartlett, Alex Passantino, and Kevin Young
Seyfarth Synopsis: On Thursday afternoon, a federal judge in Texas issued an order officially invalidating the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2016 overtime rule, which would have more than doubled the minimum salary level for most overtime-exempt employees. While the long awaited ruling brings a measure of closure for employers,
Continue Reading Obama Overtime Rule Invalidated by Federal Court in Texas
Co-authored by Steve Shardonofsky and Kevin A. Fritz
Seyfarth Synopsis: As employers begin to pick up the pieces following Hurricane Harvey, management will likely encounter questions about employee pay, benefits, and leaves of absence during and after this disaster, and may also have questions about how to help their workers get by during this difficult time. After making sure your
Continue Reading Practical Advice for Weathering Pay and Leave Issues Following Hurricane Harvey
Co-authored by Kyle Petersen, John Giovannone, and Noah Finkel
Seyfarth Synopsis: By resurrecting reliance on the administrative/production dichotomy in FLSA administrative exemption cases, the Ninth Circuit is at odds with the California Supreme Court’s application of the state’s administrative exemption. California employers thus find themselves in a strange new world where the state construct is easier to understand
Continue Reading It’s a Strange New World in California for the Administrative Exemption
Authored by Cheryl Luce
Employers often grapple with what to do when their policies prohibit off-duty work, like working on mobile devices after hours, that employees don’t follow. Even if it has a policy prohibiting off-duty work, if the employer knows (or should know) an employees is working, the employer must compensate the employee for the off-duty work. The same
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Sends Police Officers’ Off-Duty BlackBerry Claims to Spam Folder
Co-authored by John Giovannone, Kyle Petersen, and Noah Finkel
Seyfarth Synopsis: Earlier this month, the Ninth Circuit chose to side with the Second Circuit, and not the Sixth Circuit, to opine that mortgage underwriters fail to meet the FLSA’s administrative exemption from overtime test because underwriting duties “go to the heart of… marketplace offerings, not to the internal
Continue Reading Making A Mountain Of The Administrative/Production Dichotomy Molehill
Authored by Alex Passantino
Seyfarth Synopsis: On July 26, 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor will publish its anticipated Request for Information on the White-Collar Overtime Exemption in the Federal Register. The RFI will give the regulated community 60 days to provide its comments in response.
The RFI seeks input on a wide variety of topics, many of which involve
Continue Reading DOL Seeks Comment on Overtime Rule
Authored by Alex Passantino
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Wage & Hour Division announced its regulatory plan for the next year and it is less ambitious than some may have anticipated. A request for information on the overtime rule and a proposal to rescind a limited tip credit regulation are all that is on the immediate horizon for employers.
Each spring and
Continue Reading What’s on the Agenda? Tips and OT
Co-authored by Robert S. Whitman and Howard M. Wexler
Seyfarth Synopsis: The majority of courts have held that releases of FLSA rights require approval by a court or the US Department of Labor. A recent case in the Southern District of New York highlights a dilemma employers face when seeking “finality” through DOL-approved settlements.
In Wai Hung Chan v. A
Continue Reading Money for Nothing! Court Allows Employees to Pursue Lawsuit Despite DOL Settlement
Co-authored by Cheryl Luce and Noah Finkel
Seyfarth Synopsis: An unpopular DOL regulation that prohibits employers from retaining customer tips received another blow this summer. The Tenth Circuit joined the Fourth Circuit and several district courts in holding that the FLSA does not require employers to turn over customers’ tips to employees so long as those employees are paid at
Continue Reading The Tenth Circuit Takes the DOL Tipping Rule Off the Menu
Co-authored by Robert J. Carty, Jr., John Phillips, and Alex Passantino
Seyfarth Synopsis: On June 30, the Department of Labor filed its reply brief to support its appeal from a preliminary injunction that enjoined the DOL from implementing its 2016 revisions to the salary-level tests for determining applicability of the FLSA’s executive, administrative, and professional exemptions.
Continue Reading Finally Briefed: Appellate Experts’ Perspective on the Fully Briefed 5th Circuit EAP Exemption Appeal