Oh the weather outside is frightful … No, seriously, it’s actually dangerous here in Chicago. Since much of the city seems to be on lock-down today as we all try not to freeze to death, this seems like a good time to review the rules relating to employee pay during weather-related shut-downs. For non-exempt employees, … Continue Reading
Q. Our company’s busy season is coming up, meaning we will be asking employees to work longer hours. Our non-exempt employees will all receive overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. Some of them will actually end up earning more per week than some exempt employees. We would like to … Continue Reading
In July, we wrote about the Department of Labor’s proposed changes to the regulations governing the white collar exemptions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The current regulations governing these exemptions—executive, administrative, and professional—include a salary basis test by which to determine if an employee meets one of these exemptions. The salary basis test currently … Continue Reading
Note: This post relates to the Department of Labor’s proposed rules issued in 2015. For a summary of the final rules issued May 18, 2016, please check out this post, and see this post for a link to the recording of our May 23, 2016 webinar. This morning, the Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division … Continue Reading
At the end of last year, we discussed the Pay Period Leap Year and what it means for employers. If your first weekly paychecks will issue on Thursday, January 1, 2015, you will have a fifty-third pay period on December 31, 2015. If your first bi-weekly paychecks will issue on Thursday, January 1, 2015, you … Continue Reading
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you are hopefully familiar by now with the notion that exempt employees generally must be paid their full weekly salary for all workweeks in which they perform any work. There are certain limited exceptions to this rule. For example, if an exempt employee starts or ends … Continue Reading
As we have discussed before, to be considered an exempt executive, administrative, or professional employee, most employees must be paid on a “salary basis,” meaning that they receive a fixed salary for each workweek regardless of the number of hours worked or the quality or quantity of work performed. In a ruling that at first … Continue Reading
Q. A salaried, exempt employee who recently returned from a week of unpaid FMLA leave claims that he is entitled to be paid his full salary for entire week because he responded to a number of work-related e-mails and telephone calls while he was out. Do we have to pay? A. Wage and hour law is … Continue Reading
Q. One of our salaried exempt employees appears to have violated our sexual harassment policy. We would like to suspend him without pay for 3 days. Is this allowed under the FLSA? A. Maybe, but check your state’s laws as well. With a few specific exceptions, employees whose duties qualify them as executive, administrative and … Continue Reading
Q. Our holiday pay policy says that employees must be at work the day before and the day after a holiday. Our office is closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. If an exempt employee works Monday and Tuesday but calls in “sick” on Wednesday, can we deny the employee holiday pay? A. Many employers have policies … Continue Reading
Reading about a recent lawsuit filed against Groupon, I was reminded that even the most cutting edge businesses may not understand the nuances associated with calculating overtime and find themselves a target for running afoul of wage and hour laws. My colleague and fellow blogger, Bill Pokorny, wrote a helpful blog entry last week on … Continue Reading
