Wage and Hour Defense Blog

I am pleased to report that the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed the district court's summary judgment in favor of our client, a bus company, in a case involving the motor carrier exemption.  The case is Walters v. American Coach Lines of Miami, Inc. (11th Cir., July 23, 2009).

 I first reported on this case and discussed the basics of the motor carrier exemption in a September 2008 post on the Florida Employment Law Blog.  My EBG colleague, Brian Molinari, recently summarized the Walters decision in a post on the Prima Facie Law Blog.

A quick ...

A number of recent lawsuits illustrate how changing workplace technology can form the basis for creative FLSA lawsuits.  A wave of claims have been brought against Fortune 500 companies alleging that non-exempt employees have not been paid for "off the clock "duties such as logging into computer systems and responding to email and text messages after work hours and on weekends.

Putting aside the merits of these cases, this trend illustrates the legal implications of introducing technology into the workplace, especially when used by non exempt employees to work remotely.  ...

By now, you are probably aware that the minimum wage under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act goes up to $7.25 on July 24, 2009. Employers with operations in Florida know that this is four cents more than the current Florida minimum wage of $7.21.  Florida employers must pay the higher of the two wages.

But what's the minimum wage for tipped employees in Florida as of July 24th?  The answer is not as simple as you might think, and you might be misled by reading the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation web page on the minimum wage.  That web page states the new federal ...

By Michael Kun and Matthew A. Goodin

California employers are celebrating a new California Supreme Court decision that effectively prevents unions from filing suit under the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act ("PAGA") and the Unfair Competition Law ("UCL").

 There is no reason to celebrate.

What appears to be a major victory for employers is, in fact, no victory at all once one considers the practicalities of litigation.

On June 29, 2009, the same day that it issued its highly anticipated opinion in Arias v. Supreme Court, holding that employees need not bring representative ...