Employers in St. Louis City should prepare for an imminent increase in the minimum wage from $7.70 to $10 per hour. On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court issued its direction to lift an injunction blocking the City’s minimum wage ordinance from taking effect. The trial court that issued the injunction must now lift the injunction—which can happen at any time. Once the injunction ...

Does your timekeeping software make it harder for you to comply with wage and hour laws -- and to defend yourself in a wage and hour lawsuit?

A study recently published in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology says that there are features of certain timekeeping programs that can create wage and hour problems for employers, and result in underpayment* of employees.

*Underpayment is ...

The FLSA hurts women? Heather Owen, partner in our Jacksonville Office and proprietor of FOCUS, our women's leadership blog, begins a three-part series on how the Fair Labor Standards Act, with its lack of flexibility, is unfair to women (non-exempt women, anyway), who continue to assume more responsibility for child care, elder care, and other domestic duties, in addition to their ...

House and Senate Republicans have introduced legislation -- the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017 -- that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to allow private sector employers to provide "comp time" to employees in lieu of overtime pay. I've read the House version of the bill, and I'm having a hard time finding anything to dislike.

A few weeks ago, I said that I thought the ...

Lots going on in the Northeast these days!

From Massachusetts, Connor Cobean of our Boston Office has a discussion of a state Superior Court decision that allows employees to sue for back wages and treble damages if their employers violate the Sunday blue laws. (Employers covered by the blue laws have to pay time and a half to non-exempt employees who work on Sunday.)

And the New York ...

DEAR READERS: Before you accuse me of legal malpractice, take a look at tomorrow's date.  

Habit 1: Discriminate, retaliate, harass -- have a ball! There's a new sheriff in town, with a more employer-friendly, compliance-assistance-oriented U.S. Department of Labor (we think) and the nullification of burdensome regulations like the gone-and-not-lamented Fair Pay and Safe ...

A "print and save" for California employers, to be sure. Richard Bromley and Aaron Rutschman of our Los Angeles-Century City Office have a comprehensive guide to the Golden State's often-confusing laws on paid meal and rest breaks. If you have operations in California, you need to read this and keep a copy for future reference.

The March 2017 edition of ConstangyTV's Close-Up on ...

President Trump has issued his new and improved "travel ban" Executive Order, which reduces the list of "banned" countries from the original seven to six (Iraq is now off the list), provides more of a rationale for banning foreign nationals from the six countries, makes exceptions for permanent legal residents and others, and otherwise addresses some of the issues that caused so many ...

Yesterday, the Missouri Supreme Court reinstated a St. Louis city law that will hike the city’s minimum wage to $11 per hour by 2018. Originally enacted in 2015, the law had been invalidated by a trial judge hours before it was to become effective.

As originally passed, the city’s law provided for graduated increases to the minimum wage as follows:

• October 15, 2015 - $8.25 per ...

Walter Olson of the great Overlawyered.com sent a challenge over Twitter earlier this week:

For those of you who don't know Mr. Olson, he's a libertarian.  :-)

I have to admit, I needed time to process this! I complain about these laws all the time, but would I really want to get rid of all protections for employees who want to organize, be paid a fair wage, avoid being thrown out on the street ...