The Washington Employment Security Department (ESD) adopted new rules for the state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (PFML) regarding employer reporting requirements, child placement, and self-employment elective coverage requirements. The new rules become effective July 1, 2023.

Read the full Update here.

As reported earlier this year, California’s state minimum wage increased to $15.50 per hour for all employers on January 1, 2023. However, some California employers may face another minimum wage increase on July 1, 2023. This is due to the adoption by many cities and counties in California of their own local minimum wage rates above the California state minimum wage for employees working within their jurisdiction. If a locality provides a higher minimum wage rate than the state rate, the employer must pay the higher local wage rate.…

Continue Reading Minimum Wage Increases To Take Place on July 1, 2023, for Some California Localities

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Higgins v. Bayada Home Health Care Inc., held that it is not a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for an employer to deduct time from an exempt employee’s paid time off (PTO) bank for failing to meet a productivity target. The employer in the case had developed a point-based system to ensure that employees met certain “productivity minimums,” with various tasks being assigned a certain number of “productivity points.” When employees consistently exceeded their productivity minimums, they received additional compensation. When employees failed to meet their weekly productivity minimums, however, their available PTO was deducted. The employer did not deduct from an employee’s salary once PTO had been exhausted.…

Continue Reading Third Circuit Rules Paid Time Off Is Not Part of an Exempt Employee’s Salary

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held in Clark v. A & L Homecare and Training Center, that plaintiffs must show a “strong likelihood” that other employees are “similarly situated” to the plaintiffs for a court to certify a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective action and facilitate notice of the action. The “strong likelihood” standard has the potential to make it more difficult for plaintiffs to facilitate notice of their FLSA collective actions to other potential collective members.…

Continue Reading The Sixth Circuit Sets a New Standard for Notification of FLSA Collective Actions

The first phase of the District of Columbia Tip Credit Elimination Act of 2021 became effective May 1, 2023.

The Tip Credit Elimination Act, which was passed by voters in the District of Columbia in November 2022 as Initiative 82, will phase out Washington, D.C.’s tip credit for employers with employees who receive tips by 2027. To achieve this, the act provides that the minimum cash wage for tipped employees will gradually increase as the maximum tip credit available to employers decreases.…

Continue Reading District of Columbia Tip Credit Elimination Act Increases Cash Wage for Tipped Employees

On May 3, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the FY2024 New York State Budget Agreement (the Budget), which includes legislation increasing the state’s minimum wage rate over the next three years.…

Continue Reading New York State’s Minimum Wage To Increase Effective January 1, 2024

In Mathews v. USA Today Sports Media Group, LLC et al., plaintiff Elizabeth Mathews (Mathews) brought a collective action under the FLSA alleging that she was an employee rather than an independent contractor to the defendant. Mathews moved for conditional certification pursuant to the widely followed two-step conditional FLSA certification process adopted in Lusardi v. Xerox Corp, 118 F.R.D. 351 (D.N.J. 1987). Under this approach, an initial collective certification determination is made using a lenient standard—that proposed members of a collective are similar enough to receive notice of the lawsuit so the proposed collective member may decide whether to affirmatively join the lawsuit. In the second step, which occurs after collective certification discovery has been completed, the district court makes a second decision when the employer moves for “decertification” of the collective, using a stricter standard, to determine whether the named plaintiffs and opt-in members are “similarly situated.”…

Continue Reading Eastern District of Virginia Follows the Fifth Circuit’s One-Step Certification Approach for Collective Actions Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

California’s enhanced pay data reporting requirement under SB 1162 for 100 or more employees or 100 or more workers hired through labor contractors is due May 10, 2023, for reporting year 2022. More information is found here.