Labor & Employment Law Update

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a recent decision that made several pronouncements regarding Illinois vacation pay—many of which seem straightforward—but they were pursued to a final decision by a federal appellate court, so a brief refresher course appears to be in order.

First, as the decision makes clear, the law does not require employers in Illinois to provide paid vacation benefits to employees.  However, when an employer in Illinois provides paid vacation benefits to employees, Illinois law requires the employer to pay an employee the value of ...

On January 20, 2017 shortly after taking office, newly sworn in President Donald Trump directed White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to issue a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies directing them not to send any regulations to the Federal Registry until further notice, to withdraw any proposed regulations that have not been published and to postpone for 60 days the effective dates of regulations that have been published by the Officer of the Federal Register. As stated in Priebus’ memorandum, the purpose is to ensure the President’s appointees or ...

Shortly following his inauguration on Friday, President Trump signed an Executive Order affirming his intent to eliminate the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The executive order is not a repeal of the ACA and does not make any changes to the law or regulations thereunder, but rather addresses the actions of federal agencies in enforcing the existing law. The executive order directs the agencies responsible for overseeing ACA enforcement (Health and Human Services, Treasury Department, and Department of Labor) to, “take all actions consistent with the law to minimize the ...

We are now almost three weeks into the New Year and while it might be tempting to ease into 2017, the time is now to ensure that the required compliance updates have been made to your payroll and Form I-9 procedure to comply with the 2017 changes.

Minimum Wage

The following 21 states have updates to their minimum wage that affect your payroll for 2017:

1. Alaska (Effective 1/1/17) – minimum wage increases from $9.75 to $9.80.
2. Arizona (Effective 1/1/17) – minimum wage increases from $8.05 to $10.00.
3. Arkansas (Effective 1/1/17) – minimum wage increases from $8.00 to $8.50.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday, January 13, 2017 that it will hear a trio of cases concerning the right of employers to include class action waivers in employment-related arbitration agreements. Arbitration agreements are contracts through which an employee and an employer agree to resolve potential future disputes through binding arbitration rather than through the courts. Class action waivers are provisions in arbitration agreements that prohibit employees from joining together to arbitrate multiple related claims in a class or collective action. If such a waiver ...

The NLRB has, once again, struck down work rules the Board deemed overly broad. This time, the employer is Whole Foods Market, and the rules at issue essentially barred employees from photographing or making audio or video recordings during working hours—that is, when employees were being paid to do their assigned work. These rules did not apply while employees were on break.

Readers may remember that the NLRB’s rationale for striking down various employer policies in recent years has hinged on protecting employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act to engage in ...

On January 6, 2017, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) twitter account confirmed the federal agency’s interest in “gig economy” workers. “Gig economy” workers refer to individuals working in modern, flexible employment structures that contract with an employer for a short-term project or on a job-by-job basis, rather than working in traditional, long-term relationships with a single employer. For example, gig economy workers generally reference temporary workers, freelancers, independent contractors, and staffing ...

The EEOC’s new Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) highlights its enforcement priorities and alerts employers to areas most likely to attract the EEOC’s investigative eye, including the types of charges the EEOC is most likely to litigate on a complainant’s behalf.

The EEOC recognizes that employment law is continuously developing and that related practices are continuously evolving.  As a result, this SEP is intended to reflect current issues. This new four year SEP (which remains in effect until superseded, modified or withdrawn by vote of a majority of members of the ...