Department of Labor

Subscribe to Department of Labor via RSS

On March 24, 2020, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued the first guidance related to the new Families First Coronavirus Response Act. It answered a few questions of general interest, but a lot of questions that relate to small businesses (by that, I’m talking about businesses with under 50 employees) are still up in the air. The DOL further indicated that we should not hold our breath for any regulations before the enactment date. Instead, regulations are promised sometime in April.

New effective date

The biggest surprise was the DOL announcing that the law is now going to become effective on April 1 rather than April 2. Taking advantage of some flexible language in the Act, the DOL obviously decided that it made the most sense to make a pay-related law effective on the first day of most employers’ pay periods, rather than on the second day, which was likely to create payroll nightmares. So, April 1 it is.

Benefits are not retroactive

Continue Reading DOL’s Initial Families First Guidance Throws Some Curveballs; Effective Date Now April 1

New DOL Rule Increases Salary Basis Threshold

Employers may need to give some exempt employees a raise come 2020. This week, the federal Department of Labor (“DOL”) released its new Final Rule on the minimum salary an employer needs to pay an exempt employee in order to satisfy the “salary basis” test.

Currently, an employer must pay an exempt employee a salary of at least $455 per week ($23,660 annually).  Effective January 1, 2020, that level increases to $684 per week ($35,568 annually). That’s nearly a $12,000 increase, which would be about a 50% raise for an exempt employee who current makes the minimum threshold salary.

The new Rule, however, pales in comparison to what the DOL proposed, and was about to implement in 2016, before a court put a hold on that Rule (the DOL ultimately withdrew the Rule).  That Rule sought to more than double the current threshold, and increase the minimum salary to $47,476.

Critics (mostly on the employer side) argued that the rationale used to justify such a significant jump in the salary basis was flawed, and that its effect would be to hurt businesses and employees alike.  The new Rule took most of those concerns into account, inasmuch as there is much more consensus among business and employee advocates as to the propriety of the new Rule. To that end, although there is certainly a possibility that a court could hold up implementation of the Rule, there is less chance that an advocacy group will seek to stop this Rule.

What Should Employers Do Now?

Continue Reading Show Me The Money: Some Exempt Employees Due a Raise in 2020

We can’t tell you how many times we’ve been asked in the last few weeks:  is there any chance the new overtime rule will go away or at least be postponed to sometime after December 1?  Well, apparently the answer is…

YES!  Yes.  Yes.  The answer — much to our surprise — is YES, the…

The moment we have all been waiting for (dreading?) has arrived — the Department of Labor issued its “Overtime” Final Rule.  The details are available on the DOL’s website, with the “official” Final Rule to be published in the Federal Regulations tomorrow.

As anyone who follows HR or employment law knows, this Final Rule…

Uber_app_icon - wikimedia commonsRonald Reagan famously once said: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

On January 13, 2015, the State of Florida entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) with the goal of preventing the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. It is part of DOL’s “Misclassification Initiative.” Nationally, this initiative has meant a significant increase in the number of investigations undertaken by DOL, and Florida employers can expect greater scrutiny in light of the agreement with DOL.

How’s the initiative going so far? Two very recent cases caught our attention. Just a few days ago FedEx settled with the DOL by agreeing to pay $227 million to delivery drivers in California that were classified as independent contractors. FedEx will bounce back – aren’t drones going to be delivering packages soon anyway?Continue Reading Yikes…Uber Drivers are Employees, Not Independent Contractors?

The Department of Labor announced yesterday in a press release that it has launched its first application for smartphones — a timesheet app to “help employees independently track the hours they work and determine the wages they are owed.”  Yes, that’s right.  The DOL created an iPhone app that allows employees to track their hours…

The Department of Labor recently issued updated COBRA model notices to assist employers in complying with the recently enacted Temporary Extension Act of 2010 (“TEA”).  The DOL website has the following model notices available:

…