Wage and Hour Defense Blog

As we wrote here recently,  two federal courts in California rejected Postmates’ attempt to escape having to defend thousands of individual arbitrations filed by drivers contending they have been misclassified as independent contractors. Those decisions require Postmates to pay millions in arbitration fees alone.

A federal court in Illinois has now reached the same conclusion, holding that Postmates must proceed with more than 200 individual arbitrations that will cost Postmates $11 million in arbitration fees.

Arbitration agreements with class action waivers have become ...

The California Labor Commissioner’s Office has taken aim at Mobile Wash, Inc., a business that offers a mobile app for on-demand car washing and detailing services, filing a lawsuit against the company and its president to enforce AB5, California’s controversial law designed to make it more difficult for businesses to engage workers as independent contractors.

As we wrote here, AB5 codified and expanded the “ABC test” adopted by the California Supreme Court in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court for determining whether workers in California should be ...

While the COVID-19 pandemic remains a challenge to employers nationwide, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) continues to field non-COVID-related wage and hour questions.  On June 25, 2020, the WHD issued five new opinion letters addressing the outside sales, administrative, and retail or service establishment exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), as well as the relationship between third-party payments to workers and the FLSA’s minimum wage requirement.  Employers should take note of these useful explanations of key ...

The times they are a-changin’ and Washington’s rules relating to overtime pay are changing with them. Effective July 1, 2020, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (“L&I”) has updated the criteria for workers to be exempt from receiving overtime pay, paid sick leave, and other requirements under the state Minimum Wage Act. These changes affect executive, administrative, and professional workers, as well as outside salespeople and computer professionals across all industries in Washington State.

Overtime exemption rules generally require “white ...

As employers continue to deal with workplace issues related to COVID-19, you should be aware that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) has indicated that it will be investigating allegations of wage and hour violations that have occurred as a result of the rapid workforce changes undertaken by many organizations earlier this year.   Unfortunately, as you may know, the WHD rarely announces those investigations in advance and, instead, employers typically learn of them when a letter arrives announcing 72 hours’ notice to produce payroll records, or a ...

As we wrote about in more detail here, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has brought increased attention to the legal and practical distinctions between employees (who are entitled to various compensation and employment benefits under the law) and independent contractors (who generally are not).  The pandemic has also prompted lawmakers at the federal, state, and local level to explore further legislation designed to provide independent contractors with greater protections under the law.

The Seattle City Council has now passed two ordinances—the “Gig Worker Premium Pay ...

Full-Time and Part-Time Employees under the FFCRA

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued standards governing emergency paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave available to full-time and part-time employees for COVID-19 related reasons in its April 6, 2020 temporary rule on Paid Leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) (the “Temporary Rule”).

Of particular interest to this blog is the Temporary Rule’s discussion of what it means to be a “full-time” or “part-time” employee for purposes of taking ...