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Recently, a California court of appeal held that employees can pursue Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims for violations of California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (HWHF) (Labor Code § 245 et seq.) The HWHF generally requires employers provide eligible employees at least three paid sick days per year. Enforcement of this requirement is the responsibility of the labor commissioner and attorney general, and employers who do not comply may be subject to compensatory and liquid damages. They also may incur civil penalties under section 248.5. Section 248.5(e), which states “any person or entity enforcing this article on behalf of the public as provided for under applicable state law shall, upon prevailing, be entitled only to equitable, injunctive, or restitutionary relief . . . .” (emphasis added). The interpretation of the italicized language became the core of the dispute in this recent case.…

Continue Reading California Court of Appeal Opens New Pathway for Private Attorneys General Act Claims

On May 23, 2022, the California Supreme Court issued a seminal opinion in Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services, Inc., which found that employees can recover penalties for failure to timely pay wages at termination and failure to provide accurate itemized wage statements based on untimely paid or unreported meal and rest period premiums. Prior…

On January 15, 2022, the New York City Council (the Council) enacted a law requiring employers in the city with four or more employees to disclose the expected salary range on internal and external job listings beginning on May 15, 2022.…

Continue Reading Show Me the Money: New York City’s Pay Transparency Law Delayed Until November 1, 2022

Among employers’ efforts to stay on top of numerous wage and hour issues, the rules surrounding child labor have long been considered irrelevant by many large employers because persons under age 18 did not make up a significant segment of their workforce. With acute labor shortages throughout the United States leading to more job openings than job seekers, particularly at the entry level, this is changing. On March 29, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a press release to highlight some of its recent investigations and remind employers of regulations and limitations related to the employment of youth.
Continue Reading Department of Labor Warns Employers to Know the Rules for Putting Minors to Work

The California Court of Appeal recently held that an employer whose wage statements did not comply with section 226 of the California Labor Code was not subject to the heightened penalties imposed on employers who fail to provide wage statements or keep required records.
Continue Reading California Court of Appeal Declines to Apply Heightened Penalties to Wage Statement Violations

On October 18, 2021, Plaintiff Ysa Santana Reynoso (Reynoso), a former employee of pork processor Hatfield Quality Meats, Inc. (Hatfield), filed a class action lawsuit before a state court in Pennsylvania against Hatfield seeking unpaid wages under the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act (PMWA) for time spent undergoing mandatory COVID-19 screenings.
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Continue Reading Employee Asserts Claims of Uncompensated COVID-19 Screening Practice

The Washington State Employment Security Department audits records of employers located in Washington to confirm that wages and hours are accurately reported and to ensure compliance with the state’s unemployment insurance laws and rules. During the audit, ESD auditors will perform a wide variety of functions, including looking for evidence of unreported employees, casual labor,…

In October 2019, Ralph “Trey” Johnson filed a putative class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and a number of universities alleging that college student-athletes are employees who are entitled to pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Judge John R. Padova ordered the parties to submit supplemental briefing on the Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss in light of the Supreme Court’s June 21, 2021 opinion in National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston. The Alston decision held that the NCAA could not bar certain education-related benefits (such as tutors or computers) and left open the door for a direct challenge to the NCAA’s prohibition on paying athletes.
Continue Reading Student Athletes Oppose Motion to Dismiss FLSA Claims in Light of Supreme Court’s Alston Opinion

On June 21, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to limit the amount of non-tip producing work that a tipped employee can perform when an employer is taking a tip credit. In other words, when an employee is working in a tipped occupation and the employee has performed a substantial amount of non-tipped labor (more than 20% or 30 consecutive minutes), the employer can no longer take a tip credit and must pay the full federal minimum wage to the worker.
Continue Reading Tips Anyone? The Department of Labor Proposed Changes to Tip Credits

The Biden presidency has become a focus of employers who are looking to see what policy and enforcement priorities will come out of the federal Department of Labor. In addition, the pandemic has placed a spotlight on low-wage workers and the policies that affect them. As the administration has passed the 100-day mark, we expect to see a strong focus on wage and hour issues at the federal level as the government ramps up additional resources and hires key personnel to fulfill its objectives.
Continue Reading Biden Administration’s Strong Policy and Enforcement the Focus of Employers