A national auto parts distributor has reached a settlement with the Department of Labor to pay a total of $5.6 million in back pay and liquidated damages (plus interest) to 1,398 drivers misclassified as independent contractors. The payments to the individual drivers are as low as $40 and as high as more than $120,000.
Monday, January 23, 2023
The BIG risk of misclassifying employees as independent contractors
A national auto parts distributor has reached a settlement with the Department of Labor to pay a total of $5.6 million in back pay and liquidated damages (plus interest) to 1,398 drivers misclassified as independent contractors. The payments to the individual drivers are as low as $40 and as high as more than $120,000.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Settlement highlights wage and hour risks of remote work
The City of Cleveland has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle the wage and hour claim of a City Hall employee who claimed that she wasn't paid overtime while working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Eve Bonvissuto, an assistant administrator in the city's public safety department's medical unit, had claimed $68,709 in overtime pay. She alleged that the city had misclassified her as exempt, and that city had no timecard or time-tracking system in place at the time for remote workers.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Avoiding liability missteps with year-end bonuses
As employers plan for year-end bonus payments to employees, you need to learn the difference between nondiscretionary bonuses, discretionary bonuses, and special occasion bonuses (such as holiday or other gifts). Otherwise, you risk finding a Department of Labor lump of coal in your wage and hour stocking.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, December 7, 2022
What should you do when the DOL shows up at your door?
"I'm an investigator with the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor. I'm here to conduct an investigation into how your pay your employees." He then shows you his badge, and asks to see the following:
Records showing the business's annual dollar volume of transactions in in interstate commerce to establish that the DOL has jurisdiction; and
Payroll and time records for the past three years.
With that, you're off the races in a DOL wage and hour investigation. The investigator will seek to determine if you've properly classified your employees as exempt or non-exempt, and if you've met your minimum wage and overtime obligations.
What do you do now?
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, December 6, 2022
Pay attention to the industries the Department of Labor is targeting
Take a look at the following headlines, each taken from a Department of Labor news release from just the past month.
- US Department of Labor obtains court judgment ordering Pennsylvania restaurant, owner to pay 68 employees $193K in back wages, damages
- US Department of Labor finds overtime, tip violations; recovers $80K in back wages for 52 workers at 5 Carolina restaurants
- Dollars to doughnuts: Krispy Kreme to pay more than $1.1M to 516 workers after US Department of Labor finds systemic overtime violations
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Must an employer pay employees for time spent waiting for computers to boot up?
It's a tale as old as time … or at least as old as employees have been working on computers. You start your work day by turning on your computer, and you wait. Wait for the computer to boot up so that you can then start actually working. That process (which repeats at the end of the work day when you shut the computer down) can take 30 seconds or it can take a few minutes or longer, depending on the age and speed of the machine, the operating system it runs, and the number of apps that need to load during the process.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Biden’s Department of Labor proposes significant new independent contractor regulations
Who qualifies as an independent contractor? If the Biden administration's new proposed regulations take effect as drafted, the answer to that question will change significantly.
Under the proposed new rules, the DOL will use a multi-factor "economic realities test" that considers and balances the following non-exclusive list of six factors to determine whether the worker is truly in business for themselves, or is an employee working for someone else.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Dispelling six common wage and hour misconceptions
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Employers, repeat after me: “Tips belong to employees, not employers.”
$1,351,253.34. That's the amount a federal judge has ordered the Empire Diner, its owner, Ihsan Gunaydin, and its manager Engin Gunaydin to pay a group of 107 servers and kitchen workers based on an illegal tip scheme.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Lyfting independent contractor status
If I asked you to identify Lyft's business, how would you answer?
"They're a transportation company," you'd say. There's no other correct answer … unless you ask Lyft.
Lyft will tell you that it's a tech company, not a provider of transportation.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, August 25, 2022
The wage and hour implications of employee electronic surveillance
Every 10 minutes at random points the company took a screenshot of her computer monitor and a photo of her face. The company was using that information to pay Carol (and every other worker) only for the minutes when they appeared be active according to the photos. If, for example, the photo happened to capture Carol during a moment of inactivity (for example, a 30-second interval when she went to get a cup of coffee), it would dock her for the entire 10-minute span. As you can imagine, the digital tracking actually missed a lot of Carol's work, including any work she did offline. She's working, but the company thinks she's not working, and it's going to dock for that any perceived increments of inactivity.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, July 28, 2022
Unlike ordering at Chick-Fil-A, legal compliance isn’t chosen from a menu.
"We are looking for volunteers for our new Drive Thru Express!🚘 Earn 5 free entrees per shift (1 hr) worked. Message us for details"
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, May 12, 2022
Let’s play spot the issue
Let's see if you can spot the employment law issue from this story, which I've borrowed from our local police blotter.
On April 26, the owner of a bar came to the police station regarding an ex-employee who stole his daughter's AirPods.
The stealing incident, which took place in February, led the owner to track the pods to a house that just so happened to be the home of the ex-employee's sister.
That's when the owner told the employee he was withholding his last check to cover the cost of the AirPods.
The man needed a police report to document the incident and provide the state justification of docking the ex-employee $250 from his last paycheck.
What do you think?
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Restaurant learns the hard way what an illegal tip pool looks like
Hard Eight BBQ says it misunderstood its obligations under the Fair Labor Standards Act by paying managers a share of tips earned by servers across the restaurant's five locations. As a result, following a Department of Labor investigation it reached a settlement with its managers totaling $867,572.
Matt Perry, COO of Hard Eight BBQ, told 5 NBCDFW that "managers were part of the tip pool at their five restaurants because they do the same jobs as other hourly employees on any given shift and that because of that they felt like managers should also receive a small portion of the tip share."
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, April 14, 2022
Ohio enacts sweeping changes to state wage and hour laws
Beginning July 6, 2022, Ohio employers have a new set of rules under which to pay their employees.
SB 47 revamps Ohio's wage and hour statute to correct some major differences that have historically existed between it and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, April 7, 2022
Don’t confuse “tips” and “service charges” for hospitality employees
How often have you looked at you bill at a restaurant and have seen an added service fee? Do you think to yourself, "No need to tip; it's already been added to the bill."
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, March 21, 2022
I’m going to say this loudly for the people in the back: IT’S ILLEGAL FOR EMPLOYEES TO WORK FOR FREE
I woke up Saturday morning to a tweet asking me for my take on this job posting.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, March 10, 2022
Local bag company learns an expensive lesson on wage and hour compliance
A federal judge has ordered American Made Bags to pay $189,756 to a group of 48 employees, half as unpaid wages and half as liquidated damages.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, March 9, 2022
The wage and hour risks of rounding
"Iraene" asks the following question on the Antiwork subreddit.
I was told to round down or round up my time. So if I start work at 7:55 I need to put 8. If I work 37 minutes, I should round down to 30, instead of 45 because this is a common business practice. Is this normal? I have entered exact times on the card and into ADP so idk why it's a problem now.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Tip credits and tip pools — the tip of the FLSA iceberg
No employment law is more misunderstood and misapplied by employers than the Fair Labor Standards Act, our federal wage and hour law. There are more than 8,000 federal FLSA lawsuits filed per year, with nearly one-quarter filed against employers in the accommodation and food service industry … including craft breweries.
These employers get themselves in legal trouble because of the special manner in which service industry employees are compensated. If you employ workers who customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips (and every craft brewery does), there are two key FLSA phrases you must understand to avoid FLSA landmines — tip credit and tip pool.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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