Hiring interns may be an effective strategy for employers to control labor costs while providing individuals, typically college students or recent graduates, an opportunity to gain valuable work experience. The hallmark of an internship is that both the employer and the intern realize that the benefits of the relationship outweigh the sacrifices each makes. Historically, … Read more
Most employers at some point must terminate employees. However, as employment protections are extended to more and more classes of individuals, employers are more likely than ever to face claims that they terminated an employee for discriminatory reasons. Thus, it is more important than ever that employers follow accepted best practices when making the termination … Read more
On July 15, 2015, the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, issued Administrator’s Interpretation No. 2015-1, reminding us that one of their central focuses is limiting the ability of employers to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This means that they have decided to … Read more
The first 11 books in the State Employment Laws series are now available on Amazon.com Salt Lake City, Utah – March 12, 2015: The Lunt Group LLC, publishers of the website Employment Law Handbook, has announced that the first 11 books of its State Employment Laws series are now available for purchase on Amazon.com. Each … Read more
Most adults in the United States are subject to being summoned for jury duty. Obviously, being summoned for jury duty has the potential of impacting an employee’s ability to work as anticipated. In order to protect employees and permit them to perform their civic duty, all states have passed jury duty leave laws that afford … Read more
Many employers have chosen to designate some of their employees as exempt for purposes of overtime requirements as permitted by federal and state overtime laws. In most situations when an employer designates an employee as exempt, they must pay the employee on a salary basis. One of the costs of paying an employee on a … Read more
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and in most states, employers are allowed to pay tipped employees an hourly wage rate that is less that the standard minimum wage. This reduced wage rate is frequently referred to as the “tipped minimum wage.” Unfortunately, this label can be a little deceptive. The reality is that … Read more
Every employer faces the task at some point of finding the right employee to fill a job vacancy. Failure to hire the right employee may lead to significant costs in terms of both time and money, not to mention potential damage to customer relationships and co-worker morale. To hire the right employee, employers must ask … Read more
As an employer, you may have employees who work in the same classification, have worked for the company for the same amount of time, but for whatever reason are paid different wage rates. You may have completely legal, non-discriminatory reasons for paying different wage rates to similarly situated employees. Moreover, in order to prevent damaging … Read more
The U.S. Department of Labor is now enforcing new regulations governing domestic service employees who provide companionship services to individuals due to their age or because they have an illness, injury, or disability. The Fair Labor Standards Act exempts domestic service workers who provided companionship services from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. Feeling that … Read more