The state of Oregon is the first in the Union to have a statewide "scheduling law." The new law will take effect (for the most part) on July 1, 2018, and will apply to retail, hospitality, and food services employers with operations in Oregon, as long as they have at least 500 employees worldwide. Bob Ortbals, who has been following and covering municipal scheduling laws, has an ...

On August 11, Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law the North Carolina Employee Fair Classification Act. The portion of the legislation that deals with worker classifications will take effect December 31.

The legislation does not change existing definitions of “employee” and “independent contractor” under state law but creates an Employee Classification Section of the North ...

And may it die quickly. The U.S. Department of Labor has taken formal regulatory action to rescind the Obama Administration's "Persuader Rule." The DOL has been enjoined from enforcing the rule since November 2016, but the latest action will presumably end it for good. Let's hope. David Phippen of our Washington DC Metro Office has the details in this Client Bulletin.

Mayor de Blasio ...

On November 23, 2016, we issued a Client Bulletin titled “Employers Can Breathe A Sigh of Relief Come December 1: Court strikes down overtime rule.”  But a new lawsuit in federal court in New Jersey puts a gulp in that sigh of relief.

Background

As previously reported, regulations that would have more than doubled the salary threshold for Administrative, Executive and ...

Trump DOL removes Obama DOL guidance on independent contractors, joint employment. On Wednesday, Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta removed two Administrator's Interpretations on independent contractors and joint employment issued during the Obama Administration. Here is our Client Bulletin, which I wrote with Jim Coleman, co-chair of our Wage and Hour Practice Group. The ...

The Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017 passed the House this week, 229-197. I honestly do not understand why Democrats are opposed to this legislation. I discussed the details of the bill in this post in April. For those who are worried that workers will be deprived of their overtime pay, here are a few points to keep in mind:

1. The worker can always choose to take overtime pay instead of ...

Employers in St. Louis City must pay their employees a minimum wage of $10 an hour beginning tomorrow—Friday, May 5. The Mayor’s Office just announced that the injunction on the minimum wage ordinance has been lifted. Noncompliance with the ordinance subjects employers to prosecution in municipal court along with potentional revocation of business licenses and occupancy ...

Last week, I wrote about a study describing how certain timekeeping systems could create wage and hour liability through, among other things, making it easy to "cheat" and providing no transparency when changes are made. (Which makes it impossible to detect and correct errors.) Having addressed the "problem" last week, I wanted to talk this week about solutions.

But before I do ...

ConstangyTV's Close-Up on Workplace Law, April edition, is out! Host Leigh Tyson interviews John MacDonald, head of our Princeton (NJ) Office, about employment law issues unique to the financial and investment industries. If you haven't already subscribed to our monthly video series, please do so. And, to save you the trouble of trekking all that way over to YouTube, here is the video:

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 ...