On January 27, a campaign to amend the Ohio Constitution and raise Ohio’s minimum wage – led by Ohioans for Raising the Wage – took an important step forward when Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost certified that the campaign’s summary of its proposed constitutional amendment was “fair and truthful.” To summarize, the proposed amendment would:
Wage and Hour
DOL Clarifies Regular Rate
For the first time in 50 years the Department of Labor has issued a Final Rule attempting to clarify the overtime regular rate. The Final Rule focuses primarily on clarifying whether certain kinds of benefits or “perks,” and other miscellaneous items must be included in the regular rate. Since the DOL’s last overtime regular rate…
Labor Department Clarifies Fluctuating Work Week Pay Method
The U.S. Department of Labor, in its continuing effort to simplify its wage and hour rules, has proposed changes to the fluctuating workweek method of paying salaried employees who work varying hours from week to week. Under this method, employers can pay salaried employees a set salary every week, to cover all their straight time…
Not an April Fool’s Day Joke – Labor Department Proposes Regulation to Limit Joint Employer Wage and Hour Liability
On April 1, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed a new regulation for determining a company’s joint employer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act. When two companies are deemed joint employers, they share responsibility for the workers’ wages, which include the payment of minimum wages and overtime. Under the new rule, the Labor Department…
DOL Opines On Improper Overtime Rates
Administering payroll for employees with variable work schedules and hourly rates can cause major headaches for employers. In an effort to simplify and reduce administrative costs, employers are oftentimes tempted to set a standard overtime rate to be paid at a set dollar amount to all employees regardless of variations in compensation rates and actual…
Obama-Era Workplace Laws on the Decline: Overtime Rule, Form EEO-1 Revisions Invalidated
It’s no secret that President Obama’s use of executive orders to transform workplace laws was unprecedented. But perhaps even more unprecedented is how quickly those efforts have been derailed by the Trump administration. From NLRB appointments, to safety standards, to persuader-disclosure and joint-employment rules—to name a few—the White House has been systematically reversing workplace…
New NLRB Decision Significantly Restricts Employers’ Ability to Make Unilateral Workplace Changes
Employers in union settings know that they generally cannot make changes to their employees’ wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment without first negotiating to impasse with the union. The exception to this rule has historically been that the employers could make changes, as long as they could show that their labor contract…
EEOC Makes Minimal Changes to Proposal for Major Revision to EEO-1 Reporting
On July 13, 2016, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released a proposed revised Employer Information Report (EEO-1) (“Proposed Revision”). This slightly changes the original EEOC proposal to add compensation and hours worked data to the EEO-1 Report. An example of the proposed EEO-1 report can be found here. The…
High Court Rebukes DOL’s Interpretation of the Outside Sales Exemption; Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives are Exempt Under FLSA
The United States Supreme Court held today that pharmaceutical sales representatives are exempt from overtime under the outside sales exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The significance of the decision for labor lawyers and employers is not necessarily in the result, but in the Court’s sharp criticism of the DOL’s interpretation of its regulations…