The Department of Labor wants to raise the compensation threshold for the FLSA’s highly compensated exemption (“HCE”) test to $147,414 a year from the current $100,000. That will make the simplfied exemption test, which just requires one exempt duty, largely out of reach in most exemption disputes.
Read MoreService Contract Act (“SCA”) vacation benefits which are accrued on a pay period basis present serious compliance issues for employers trying to prove they furnished the requisite prevailing fringe benefits.
Read MoreThe SCA preempted a State law wage claim for trebled damages, giving new life to a preemption doctrine which had largely been relegated to the dustbin by clever pleading and expansive court interpretations.
Read MoreDOL issued a new Wage & Hour Administrator opinion letter on the employment status of the service providers participating in a virtual marketplace company, finding they were likely bona fide independent contractors, which would have been an unlikely outcome in the Obama era.
Read MoreDOL has proposed a revision of their current regulations regarding the calculation of the regular rate of pay, affecting meal period compensation, wellness programs, gym access, employee discounts, payments for unused sick leave, some reimbursed expenses, some types of discretionary bonuses, and tuition reimbursement programs.
Read MoreThe DOL OIG recently conducted an audit into the practice of issuing wage determinations by the Wage and Hour Division and found they had a long way to go in trying to issue timely Davis-Bacon Act wage determinations.
Read MoreWhile the statute of limitations for FLSA claims generally prohibit claims older than two or three years depending on the circumstances, the courts can toll the statute of limitations from running in other, limited circumstances,. This is known as the doctrine of equitable tolling.
Read MoreThe ordinary Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) statute of limitation look back period is supposed to be two years. A willful violation extends the period to three years. And some employer bad acts may toll the limitations period and extend it even more.
Read MoreThe public is again able to request an opinion letter from the US Department of Labor (“DOL”) to give further guidance on ambiguities in the FLSA law or regulations, and DOL has posted guidance on how to do so.
Read MoreIn some disputes under the Service Contract Act (“SCA”), the contractor has to take his claims first to the US Department of Labor (“DOL”). In other circumstances, a final determination by the DOL is not required to bring a direct claim for reimbursement against the Government.
Read MoreEmployees who are highly compensated at the rate of $100,000 a year just need to have one exempt duty so long as the worker’s primary duty is the performance of office or nonmanual activities. This makes for a much more relaxed test of exempt status from minimum wage, overtime and prevailing wage requirements.
Read MoreThe interaction between show up pay requirements and the Service Contract Act (“SCA”) Price Adjustment clauses (FAR 52.222-43 and -44) is ambiguous, and this is thus a cause of potential disputes between contracting agencies and the federal contractors
Read MoreSometimes federal contractors are working on goverment installations and find themselves being sued under state or local wage and hour laws. In exceptional crcumstances, these state causes of action may be barred by the federal enclave doctrine, which makes federal law supreme over certain government properties where the state has receded from jurisdiction.
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