On the recent uproar involving a major, major employer and its recently-terminated employee:

No. 1. Is it a good idea to provide an "open forum" to employees if there are certain topics that are off limits? No. If you want to provide a forum for employees to speak up, but only "within reason," then it's a good idea to establish and communicate your limits in advance. That way, if ...

The beginning of July conjures many images for Americans – barbecues, picnics, fireworks.  But for many employers, July also triggered preparation for the annual EEO-1 Report filing.  Until this year, covered employers were required to file their reports no later than September 30, and the data submitted had to be from any pay period in July, August, or September.

But in 2016, the Equal ...

The hearing on the lawsuit filed by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs against Google concluded on Friday, May 26, in San Francisco. As I’ve reported here, here, and here, the OFCCP is seeking historical pay data as well as names and contact information of approximately 21,000 employees.

The OFCCP believes that Google has “systemic compensation disparities ...

You want my salary history? That's sex discrimination! Well, actually, it's a little more complicated. Kacy Coble of our Memphis Office has a great post over at FOCUS, our women's leadership blog, about the perfectly legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons why employers sometimes use salary history in setting pay -- and how alternatives may be even more unfair. As state and ...

*Donnybrook: Named for the Donnybrook Fair near Dublin, "a notoriously disorderly event, held annually from 1204 until the middle of the 19th century." Meaning a "free-for-all; brawl; a usually public quarrel or dispute."

I promised earlier this month to have more detail about that decision by an Administrative Law Judge in the case filed against Google by the Office of Federal ...

A number of studies are showing that most, if not all, of the gender pay gap is explained by personal choices made by men and women. But how can employers protect themselves from claims of discrimination?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, in 2015, women working full-time had median earnings that were 81 percent of the median earnings of their male counterparts. That is ...

I posted in January about a lawsuit filed by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs against Google, seeking to force Google to provide detailed information about its equal employment practices and affirmative action program, including compensation information. Google had already provided some information to the OFCCP but contended the information that it withheld ...

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 ...

As we have previously reported, the new EEO-1 Form is set to be used as of March 31, 2018, for the October-December "snapshot" period in 2017. The new form will require federal contractors and employers with 100 or more employees to provide summary compensation data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in each EEO-1 category, divided into 12 "pay bands," and classified by ...