FLSA - Industries and Occupations

Executive Summary. In a case with far reaching implications, Cowell v. Utopia Home Care, Inc., 2:14-cv-00736-LDW-SIL, Magistrate Judge Steven Locke of the Eastern District of New York (covering Brooklyn, Queens and Long island) ruled that claims of failure to pay home care workers for hours worked a

While Department of Labor regulations interpreting the FLSA remain the primary source of employer guidance regarding the Act’s requirements, they are not necessarily the final word on what federal wage law requires. This is so even where they have been subject to “notice and comment,” triggering a h

Executive Summary: Claims by home care workers for unpaid overtime have risen steadily since the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2015, eliminated the federal overtime exemptions that allowed agency employers essentially to pay no overtime wage premiums. This has greatly affected agency employers In New

The Fair Labor Standards Act has long provided that an employer may satisfy its federal minimum wage obligations for a tipped employee by applying the employee’s tips as a credit toward the minimum wage and, in doing so, directly pay such employee less than the general minimum wage. If the employer’

On July 26, 2016, Judge William S. Duffey of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia issued a decision holding that an employer does not have to ensure tipped employees retain all of their tips if the company is not using the employee’s tips to satisfy part of the minim

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit concluded on June 14, 2016 that an employer may not deduct more than the actual credit card fees associated with liquidated credit card tips for employees without compromising the tip credit taken by the employer against the employee’s wages. Steele v.

On June 27, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the plaintiffs’ petition for a writ of certiorari in Home Care Association of America v. Weil, leaving the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) Home Care Rule intact.1 The Home Care Rule has extended minimum wage and overtime requirements to the vast maj

The Supreme Court granted certiorari in Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro, No. 15-415 (June 20, 2016), to resolve a circuit court split regarding whether “service advisors” are exempt from receiving overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Although the parties thoroughly briefed the is

On February 23, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a 2-1 panel decision upheld the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2011 revisions to 29 C.F.R. § 531.52 applying tip-pooling restrictions to employers that do not use a tip credit to satisfy minimum wage obligations.1 Under the r

Section 203(m) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows employers of tipped employees to take a tip credit against the employer's minimum wage obligation if: (a) notice of the tip credit is provided, and (b) tipped employees are allowed to retain all of their tips, except in the case of tipped

A car leasing company’s manager will go to trial on her Equal Pay Act claim because the employer failed in its burden to show the manager’s gender provided “no basis” for the pay differential between her and her male counterpart, a Mississippi federal district court has ruled. White v. Checker Leasi

On Friday, the United States Supreme Court agreed to resolve the current split among the Circuit Courts regarding whether “service advisors” are exempt from overtime under the 213(b)(10) exemption, an exemption applicable to any “salesman, partsman, or mechanic” who is primarily engaged in “selling

Providing much needed guidance to industry employers still wrestling with fallout from the United States Department of Labor’s drastic reduction to the scope of the companionship exemption, District Court Judge Sandra S. Beckwith held this week that a home care agency properly relied on the temporar

In this country, there are thousands of employees who earn their living off tips or gratuities they receive from customers. Over the last several years, there has been a movement afoot, particularly in the restaurant industry, to eliminate tipping from the workplace. Most recently, Joe's Crab Shack

In the latest litigation chapter involving the U.S. Department of Labor’s rule extending minimum wage and overtime requirements to certain home care workers, a home care industry coalition has taken its challenge of the rule to the U.S. Supreme Court. On November 18, 2015, the plaintiffs in Home Car

Five days into the DOL’s enforcement of the new rule rendering most home health aides eligible for overtime under the FLSA, questions abound regarding how state Medicaid and Medicare-funded programs will comply with the rule within their current budgets. One new report cautions consumers of home hea

Chief Justice Roberts’ denial of the Home Care Association of America’s request for stay of issuance of mandate confirms that the new rule rendering many home health aides overtime-eligible is effective, pending appeal. In response to that denial, Wage-and-Hour Administrator David Weil issued a new

In an order dated October 20, 2015, pursuant to the D.C. Circuit’s mandate issued on October 13, 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon entered summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in Home Care Association of America v. Weil. In this case, the U.S. Court of Appeals f

As New York’s hospitality industry prepares for a reduced tip credit and a fast food minimum wage, one New York restaurateur has announced its intention to eliminate tipping and thus, by extension, use of the tip credit: New York City’s Danny Meyer. This lengthy Eater feature discusses Meyer’s audac

On August 21, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the Department of Labor's Home Care Rule.1 Based on that decision, the effective date of the Home Care Rule is October 13, 2015.