The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a new opinion letter addressing when walking time during a meal period affects compensability under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The issue: Whether a 60-minute unpaid lunch, with six to 14 minutes…
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
An urgent care facility in Georgia has agreed to pay $113,199 to resolve alleged violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). According to an investigation by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Premier Health Consultants…
A recent Seventh Circuit court ruling focuses on a key overtime calculation issue for payroll: Which premiums belong in the regular rate of pay? For a Wisconsin employer, certain pay differentials and incentive premiums had to be included before calculating…
Field-based roles raise unique FLSA compliance questions, including whether an employer must pay for work tasks performed before or during the commute to the first job site. A recent DOL opinion letter addressed the issue. The question came from a…
Hybrid schedules are now a standard part of many workplaces, but payroll teams are still sorting out when a commute during the workday belongs on the timesheet. The Department of Labor (DOL) recently addressed a recurring question: When a nonexempt…
Not every sign-on bonus belongs in the overtime calculation – and a recent federal case out of Virginia shows why. A fired employee filed a lawsuit against his former employer, claiming he was illegally terminated after complaining about a co-worker’s…
A San Diego deli will pay more than $500,000 in back wages after a federal investigation found it paid workers a flat daily rate that fell short of minimum wage and overtime requirements. Here's what happened, according to an investigation…
A federal court entered a consent order against three Cowbell sports bars in Biddeford,Scarborough and Westbrook, ME, resolving a Department of Labor case alleging Fair LaborStandards Act (FLSA) violations involving minimum wage, overtime and child labor. FLSA Violations The Wage…
Payroll teams that pay nonexempt workers nondiscretionary bonuses should confirm those amounts are included in the overtime regular rate. A recent DOL investigation found that a Tennessee contractor failed to do so, resulting in a payout of about $1.73 million…
When employers fail to honor wage and hour settlement agreements, the Department of Labor's next step is to seek a court order. In this recent incident, a Washington employer operating four restaurants allegedly backed out of a deal to settle…
Does a quarterly bonus trigger an overtime recalculation? A recent DOL opinion letter says it depends on how the bonus is structured – and one approach eliminates the need for retroactive regular rate recalculation. The question came from an employer…
Does a 30-minute unpaid meal break still qualify under the FLSA if employees can barely leave the building? A new DOL opinion letter says yes – and the reasoning matters for any employer operating a large or secured facility. The…
