Labor & Employment Law Update

2020 has already proven to be a busy year for changes in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  Below is a summary of the changes thus far: 

1. New FLSA Salary Threshold (Effective January 1, 2020)

As previously reported, as of January 1, 2020, the FLSA requires employers to pay all salary exempt employees at least $684/week (equivalent to $35,568 per year for a full-year worker).

2. Changes to the FLSA Regulations Regarding the “Regular Rate of Pay” for Purposes of Calculating Overtime (Effective January 15, 2020)

The FLSA generally requires nonexempt employees to receive overtime ...

On January 7th, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued its first Opinion Letter of 2020, and the Letter serves as a reminder to businesses that retroactive overtime payments may be necessary if non-discretionary bonuses are paid to non-exempt (hourly-paid) employees.

The scenario at issue in the Letter is that an employer had an announced policy through which employees were paid a $3,000 bonus after they completed ten weeks of training.  A particular employee worked 40 hours per week in eight of those ten weeks. But in the fifth week he worked 47 hours, and in the ...

Following the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which made major changes affecting taxpayer withholding, the IRS announced it would be redesigning Form W-4. The new W-4 has officially been released, creating confusion and questions (at the time of this article the new federal 2020 W-4 can be found on the IRS website).

First and foremost, employers do NOT need to get all employees to sign a new W-4. According to IRS Publication 15, employers are to remind employees before December 1 each year to submit a new W-4 form if their withholding allowances have changed or will change for the ...