Month: August 2018

Illinois Court Highlights Individual Liability Risk in FLSA Claims

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Russell_Jackson_IL
Russell Jackson

Executive Summary: Under the FLSA, personal liability can attach to individual employees in supervisory, management, and executive positions.  To be held liable, the individual defendant must be considered an “employer,” defined as “any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee”.  29 C.F.R. § 570.113(a).  While the FLSA’s definition is relatively broad, recently, in Foday et al v. Air Check, Inc. et al, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140552 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 20, 2018), the Northern District of Illinois clarified when individual employees can properly be named as defendants, holding that a company’s President could be held liable because he possessed certain supervisory functions and knowledge of the company’s relevant pay and scheduling practices.  Continue reading →

The Fate of the DOL’s 80-20 Rule: Will the 80-20 Rule Survive?

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Douglas, Jeff - 300dpi
Jeffrey Douglas

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) “80/20 Rule” has caused significant anxiety and concern for employers in the restaurant industry and other industries with tipped employees.  A recent spate of nation-wide class action litigation is leading to record-setting settlements for restaurant employers.  However, in a recent lawsuit filed in the Western District of Texas, Restaurant Law Center, et al. v. United States Department of Labor, 18-cv-567 (W.D.Tex.), national and local restaurant groups hope to bring an end to this wave of litigation by seeking to invalidate the 80/20 Rule. Continue reading →

New Jersey Enters Partnership with USDOL To Fight Worker Misclassification

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new jersey signExecutive Summary: Just months after New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Executive Order No. 25 establishing a task force to combat employee misclassification, the NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development (LWD) entered into a cooperation agreement with the US Department of Labor (USDOL) to work together to fight worker misclassification. Continue reading →

North Carolina (Surprisingly) Becomes First State to Increase Minimum Wage to $15/Hour For Most State Employees

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Angela Cummings

North Carolina, like many other states in the Southeast, rarely takes the prize when it comes to being a trailblazer for employment laws. Instead, states such as California, New York or Oregon are the usual suspects for such distinctions. However, on July 1, 2018, North Carolina did become the first state in the nation to increase the minimum wage for most of its state employees to $15 per hour (which would equate to a minimum of $31,200, annually). New York, by contrast, does not plan to reach the $15 per hour minimum wage milestone for its state employees until 2021.  Continue reading →

$282.55 Short Of An FLSA Claim

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Jeff Shooman

Executive Summary: With Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) lawsuits becoming ubiquitous in recent years, it can be easy to forget that the act does not apply to all businesses or all employees.  On July 17, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit provided a useful reminder that the first step in analyzing any FLSA claim is not determining if there are minimum wage or overtime violations, but rather if the FLSA applies at all.   Specifically, in Collar v. Abalux, Inc., No. 18-10676, __ F.3d __, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 19592 (11th Cir. July 17, 2018) the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the grant of summary judgment to an employer because the FLSA was not triggered given that the company had less than $500,000 in annual gross receipts, which is the minimum for enterprise coverage under the statute. Continue reading →

Are You Paying Your Employees to Travel from One Customer to the Next?

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Grant Close

In most circumstances, the FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt employees for the time they spend traveling from one work site to another during their work day.  This is not breaking news, but, as it is a topic that impacts a large number of employers, it is important for employers to understand the rules surrounding compensable travel time.  The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued an opinion letter earlier this year on the topic that helps clarify the travel time principles under the FLSA and the multiple DOL regulations that come into play on this issue.  The DOL’s opinion letter FLSA2018-18, available at https://www.dol.gov/whd/opinion/FLSA/2018/2018_04_12_01_FLSA.pdf,  provides a straightforward guide to some simple rules to follow in this context. Continue reading →