Articles Discussing General Topics Under The FLSA.

Those of you who attended our annual Employment Law Conference this past February know that failing to complete Form I-9 for all new hires can lead not only to civil fines and penalties, but to criminal penalties (If you missed the conference, all of the materials and audio are available here). That’s true for wage and hour violations, too. And I don’t just mean for the company; I mean for every manager involved. In the highest profile recent example, federal prosecutors indicted a sitting Congressman, Republican Michael Grimm from Staten Island, in April 2014 for violations of wage and hour-related tax laws, and the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (the “IRCA”), among other charges related to a fast food restaurant he once owned. He allegedly filed false state and federal tax returns to underreport more than $1 million in sales and wages by concealing gross receipts and off-the-books cash wage payments.

While renewing my license plates online with Indiana’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles (yes, bureau, not department), I saw an advertisement for the Indiana Attorney General’s Unclaimed Property Division, IndianaUnclaimed.gov. On a lark, I went to the site and found over $3,000 that my former company, an Internet service provider, was owed by MCI for a credit balance on one of our interstate data circuits. An unexpected bonus! What does my good fortune have to do with wage and hour issues? Aside from customer funds like my situation, one of the most common reasons that states end up with unclaimed property is money or other property owed to former employees.

Late last week the House of Representatives narrowly approved the inclusion of an amendment in the Department of Defense (DoD) appropriations bill that would prohibit the agency from using contractors that have incurred Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations within the past five years. Such violations would include a finding of fault and liability in any civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding, including entering into wage and hour conciliation agreements or consent decrees that include a “finding of fault.”

Recently, we told you that President Obama had issued a Presidential Memorandum to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) instructing its Secretary to update regulations regarding overtime protection for workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal law that establishes minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. The regulations have not been revised at all since 2004, and we made some predictions last month about what employers could expect and, more importantly, when they could expect it.

Whether you call it “rounding” or the “7/8ths rule” or have no word to describe it at all, rounding may be of central concern for employers, both in day-to-day operations and in litigation. Rounding is the practice of adjusting time clock punch times within specific bounds. For example, if your employees punch in for work at 7:57, 8:01, and 8:02, your rounding rules may treat all of those punches as occurring at 8:00 a.m. for payroll purposes.

As I mentioned yesterday, in order to avoid costly lawsuits or DOL enforcement actions, FLSA and state wage and hour due diligence should be a substantial part of the overall due diligence process in any deal involving a company with employees, regardless of whether those employees will be employed by the buyer.

Recently, my colleague Lindsey Marcus guest authored a post on yet another successor liability case, this time out of the Third Circuit. Her post reminded me of another case in the Seventh Circuit from 2013, and a larger point from the mergers and acquisitions part of my practice and my days doing M&A in the tech world: labor and employment issues are too often overlooked in purchase agreements.

Employers, take note: The U.S. Department of Labor is watching your adherence to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), so be cautious — especially if you are on TV.

During his February 2014 State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to rely on his own executive authority to take action on behalf of American workers. He has taken this commitment to heart, and over the past several months has flexed his presidential muscle through executive orders and presidential memoranda. Specifically, Obama has increased the minimum wage payable by federal contractors, directed the Department of Labor to loosen overtime pay requirements, and prohibited retaliation against federal contractor employees who discuss their compensation.

Last month, I wrote about the Obama Administration’s Presidential Memorandum to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) instructing its Secretary to update regulations regarding overtime protection for workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal law that establishes minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. Since then, DOL Secretary Perez has spoken publicly about the possible scope of the changes.

On April 8, 2014, the President signed an Executive Order prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against employees who choose to discuss their compensation. The President also issued a Memorandum instructing the Secretary of Labor to establish new regulations requiring federal contractors to submit to the Department of Labor (DOL) summary data on compensation paid to their employees, including data by sex and race. These executive actions were issued on Equal Pay Day, and implement the less drastic provisions of the Paycheck Fairness Act for federal contractors, which failed to advance in the Senate.

Recently, we told you about President Obama’s Executive Order increasing the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors to $10.10 per hour. Tomorrow, President Obama is expected to announce that he will sign two new executive orders that will apply to federal contractors: (1) one order will forbid retaliation by federal contractors against employees that discuss their compensation with other employees; and (2) the other order will require federal contractors to maintain certain records on compensation organized by race and gender, and report that data to the federal government. These Orders are being issued to further advance the Administration’s cause of equal pay for women.

Recently on Twitter, I commented that revising the FLSA regulations won’t be quick or easy. Speaking of Twitter, if you’re not following @WageHourInsight yet, why not? I find lots of interesting tidbits every day that don’t make it here to the blog, and you can follow along with some of the more free-wheeling conversations HR professionals have on the very same topics we discuss here.

Executive Summary: Many employers are using or considering using payroll cards to pay employees. A number of states have wage payment laws restricting employers’ use of such cards. On September 12, 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a bulletin stating that under federal law employers cannot mandate that their employees receive wages on a payroll card. Employees who choose to receive wages on a payroll card are entitled to certain federal protections.

Soon after returning from its summer recess, the House of Representatives approved a bill that seeks to transfer administrative authority over federal contractor wage claims adjustments from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to the Department of Labor (DOL). The DOL is the agency charged with implementing the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires that federally-contracted workers be paid the “local prevailing wage” on government projects, and the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (CWHSSA), which mandates that federal contractors pay their employees overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 per week. The GAO is responsible for processing claims of workers who did not receive the appropriate wage. The goal of the bipartisan Streamlining Claims Processing for Federal Contracted Employees Act (H.R. 2747), introduced by Reps. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Joe Courtney (D-CT), is to improve government operational efficiency by placing both the implementation and enforcement of the federal contractor wage laws with one agency.