Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Happy 75th Birthday, FLSA


75 years ago yesterday, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act. By establishing a minimum wage, setting an overtime premium for any hours worked in excess of 40 in any week, and creating child-labor protections, the FLSA is one of the most important pieces of employment legislation ever enacted.

In the 75 years since its passage, the FLSA has morphed into one of the most confounding statutes with which employers must comply.

To celebrate the FLSA’s Diamond Jubilee, please take a walk through 10 of my greatest wage-and-hour hits from the archives (in no particular order):

  1. Taking issue with the term “wage theft”
  2. We ♥ our phones, but should employees be paid for using them off-duty?
  3. Are employers screwing up the FLSA’s lactation mandate? Probably not.
  4. The 5 little words that will cause your company a huge headache
  5. SCOTUS rules pharmaceutical reps are exempt outside salespeople
  6. “Eat Shop Sleep” underscores the importance of proactively addressing wage and hour issues
  7. “If I could press a button and instantly vaporize one sector of employment law?”
  8. Paying overtime to salaried, non-exempt employees
  9. Administrative employees vs. the administrative exemption
  10. The ticking time bomb of overtime