Wage and Hour Defense Blog

In a split decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to adopt a bright-line rule to assess whether a managerial employee has filed a complaint for the purposes of § 215(a)(3) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the statute’s anti-retaliation provision.  The decision, Rosenfield v. GlobalTranz Enterprises, appears to highlight a disagreement among the Circuits.

At least four Circuit Courts – the First, Fifth, Sixth and Tenth – have adopted a manager-specific legal standard:  in order to engage in protected activity under § 215(a)(3), the employee ...

As we look towards the New Year, employers with locations in various jurisdictions should be mindful of state and local minimum wage increases that will soon take effect.

Some of these increases are a result of laws that tie wages to an economic index (generally the Consumer Price Index). Others are the result of recent legislation.

Below are two charts addressing these changes. The first summarizes the relevant changes for states; the second, for cities and other localities.

Please note that Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington all have CPI ...

One of the featured stories on Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – is that there will be no BlackBerry overtime pay for cops in Chicago.

A federal magistrate judge in the Northern District of Illinois ruled that time spent by Chicago police officers actually answering emails on their BlackBerries was work eligible for overtime. However, "monitoring" of their BlackBerries was not work because the officers were still free to use the time predominantly for their own benefit. Regardless, the judge found that the City did not know the employees were ...

As we mentioned earlier this week, I was recently interviewed on our firm’s new video program, Employment Law This Week.  The show has now released “bonus footage” from that episode – see below.

I elaborate on some of the reasons behind this year's sharp increase in federal wage-and-hour suits: worker-friendly rules, increased publicity around minimum wage and overtime issues, and the difficulties of applying an outdated law to today's “gig” economy.

[embed]https://youtu.be/Vd3K-9Dfvk4?list=PLi4sj4jEe5heNkhVnjMTh94ipZhPPpMVh[/embed]

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently joined the chorus of Circuits adopting the pro-employer “predominant benefit test” when weighing the compensability of meal periods under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).  As a result, the Ninth Circuit is the lone Circuit to apply a different standard, opting to follow the U.S. Department of Labor regulations providing that an “employee must be completely relieved from duty” in order for a meal period to be deemed bona fide and thus not compensable.

In Babcock v. Butler County, a putative class action lawsuit, employees ...

The top story on Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – is the record high for Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits in 2015.

The number of federal wage-and-hour suits rose almost 8% this year. There are many reasons for the increase, including more worker-friendly rules and increased publicity around minimum wage and overtime issues. Some point to the difficulties of applying an outdated law to our modern day economy.

Jeff Ruzal, co-editor of this blog, is interviewed. Click below to view the episode.

Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – has a story this week on off-the-clock security screenings, which are under scrutiny around the country. Two federal class actions challenging them have reached different outcomes.

Bath & Body Works recently agreed to settle a suit in California over unpaid overtime and off-the-clock security inspections. But a federal judge in the same state dismissed a similar class action against Apple in which retail workers claimed that they should be compensated for time spent having their bags checked. The judge ...

In recent years, employers across the country have faced a great many class action and collective action lawsuits in which employees have alleged they are entitled to be paid for the time spent in security screenings before they leave their employers’ premises – but after they have already clocked out for the day.  Retailers have been particularly susceptible to these claims as many require employees to undergo “bag checks” before they depart their stores to ensure that employees are not attempting to carry merchandise out in their bags or coats.

In late 2014, in Integrity ...

Featured in Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program: Beauty school students are not entitled to wages - that was the conclusion reached by federal judges in two different cases where the students challenged the practice of serving salon customers in a clinical setting.

In both cases, the Court held that the students had not proven that the educational benefit they received was outweighed by the unpaid work they did, and they therefore did not qualify for minimum wages and overtime. Unpaid internships are under a lot of scrutiny right now by the ...

On October 15, 2015, Epstein Becker Green hosted its 34th Annual Workforce Management Briefing, which featured senior officials from the U.S. Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  This year's briefing boasted a record setting attendance, including industry leaders, general counsel and senior human resources professionals, many of whom attended the briefing workshop, Wage and Hour Compliance: You Are Not Exempt.

The Wage and Hour workshop featured three of Epstein Becker Green's wage and hour practice attorneys -- Michael Kun, Patrick Brady and ...