Seyfarth Synopsis: Last week, a Washington healthcare company was ordered to pay 33,000 workers $98.3 million in damages in a class action related to its meal break and timeclock rounding practices. The vast majority of the awarded damages pertain to missed meal breaks, but the award included an offset of about $1 million to account for the fact that
Continue Reading Washington Healthcare Company Ordered to Pay Workers Almost $100M for Missed Meal Breaks, Unpaid Time
Seyfarth synopsis: Today, the U.S. DOL unveiled its final overtime rule. The rule significantly increases the minimum salary for so-called “white collar” employees to be exempt from the federal FLSA’s overtime pay requirements. This development requires attention from virtually all employers.
The DOL’s final overtime rule, Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees
Continue Reading U.S. DOL Releases Final Overtime Rule—Effective July 2024
As the FLSA landscape continues to evolve, Seyfarth’s national Wage and Hour Litigation practice group is pleased to share our observations and analysis of the 2023 FLSA litigation trends as well as our forward-looking predictions for 2024.
Wage and hour litigation and enforcement actions continued as a hot-button concern in 2023, as plaintiffs’ lawyers advanced novel and creative claims and
Continue Reading Now Available! Seyfarth Resource – 2023 FLSA Litigation Metrics & Trends
Seyfarth Synopsis: Today the U.S. Department of Labor issued its final rule, attempting to define employee versus independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (the “Final Rule”). The Final Rule jettisons an earlier attempt under the prior Administration to modernize and simplify how to determine who is an employee and who is a contractor by focusing
Continue Reading Department of Labor Issues Final Rule on Independent Contractor Definition under the Fair Labor Standards ActBy Lennon Haas and Noah Finkel
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employers frequently struggle with questions around the compensability of certain activities, classification of employees, and how to structure their policies to avoid Fair Labor Standards Act violations. Getting the answers wrong can be costly. But getting them wrong without making reasonable efforts to comply with the law doubles an employer’s exposure. According
Continue Reading Calling Your Wage and Hour Lawyer Might Save Your Company $22 MillionBy: Robert S. Whitman and Kyle D. Winnick
In Perry et al. v. City of New York, the Second Circuit upheld a large jury verdict in favor of a collective of workers regarding off-the-clock work. In doing so, the Court reaffirmed the principle that employers will ordinarily not be liable under the FLSA when employees fail to follow a reasonable
Continue Reading Second Circuit Addresses Off-The-Clock WorkBy: 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 DayBy: 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 LossBy: Andrew McKinley, Kyle Winnick & Alex Simon
On October 11, 2022, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (“NPRM”) defining employee versus independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act. We previously discussed the way in which the NPRM proposes to shift the analysis of the control factor, particularly as related to legal, safety
Continue Reading DOL’s Proposed FLSA Independent Contractor Rule: Control and SchedulingBy: Andrew McKinley
Seyfarth Synopsis: Businesses with arbitration programs often oppose the issuance of notice in FLSA collective actions on the ground that many potential recipients have binding arbitration agreements precluding them from participating in a case. The majority of federal appellate courts have not yet addressed whether arbitration must be addressed before or after notice issues. The Sixth
Continue Reading Sixth Circuit Joins the Chorus of Appellate Decisions Requiring Arbitration to Be Assessed Before FLSA Notice Issues