Wednesday, April 3, 2019

The 9th nominee for the “worst employer of 2019” is … the fertile firing


MoMA PS1, a Queens, New York, art museum, has agreed to settle a pregnancy discrimination claim brought by Nikki Columbus, hired by the museum to direct its performance program. She alleged that the museum rescinded her job offer after it learned she had recently given birth.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Happy New Regulation Tuesday! DOL proposes updates to the definitions of "regular rate" and "joint employer".


Seal of the United States Department of Labor.svg

Over the past week, the Department of Labor's announced proposals for significant (and much needed) regulatory updates to the definitions of "regular rate" and "joint employer".

Monday, April 1, 2019

What I learned on my Spring Break


I just returned from eight days in Italy. It was a whirlwind Spring Break tour of Rome and Florence. We covered a lot of ground — per my Apple Watch, 63 miles and 140,000 steps, to be precise. And we saw a lot of stuff — the Vatican, the Colosseum, lots of beautiful churches, lots of ancient sites and ruins, and (almost) too much pizza, pasta, and gelato (but never too much wine).

Friday, March 15, 2019

WIRTW #546 (the “Arrivederci” edition)


Today is good bye … but only for two weeks. My kids' school gives them that much time off for Spring Break each year. So we are headed to Italy. Rome and Florence to be precise.

I'll be back on April 1 (no foolin') with some thoughts about what I learned on my Spring Break.

In the meantime, if you have any last minute tips on what to do, see, or eat in either of these cities, drop a note in the comments below.

Here's what I read this week:

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Share or Retweet if you care about paid parental leave


Earlier this week, Republican Senators Joni Ernst and Mike Lee introduced the Child Rearing and Development Leave Empowerment Act (the CRADLE Act). It is a first step towards providing some measure of paid parental leave to American workers. Yet, it has some serious flaws.

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

The 8th nominee for the “worst employer of 2019” is … the lascivious leader


I can't do any better of job than the EEOC did in describing the parade of horribles the one supervisor wrought at Sys-Con, a Montgomery, Alabama, general contractor:

According to the EEOC's lawsuit, from December 2015 to May 2017, a supervisor at Sys-Con's worksite at the Hyundai manufacturing plant in Montgomery, demanded sexual favors from two non-English speaking Hispanic female employees and watched pornographic videos in front of them. The EEOC further charged that the supervisor sexually assaulted one of the employees and sub­sequently taunted her, asking whether she "liked it."

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

The FLSA's salary test just doesn't matter


By now you've likely heard that the Department of Labor announced its intent to increase the qualifying salary threshold for its white collar exemptions from $455 per week ($23,660 annually) to $679 per week ($35,308 annually).

I'm here to tell you that this increase just doesn't matter.