Do you know how to calculate the “regular rate of pay” for your employees? (hint: probably not)

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employers pay their non-exempt employees one and one-half times the “regular rate of pay” for any hours worked in excess of 40 in any work week. For an employee paid a straight hourly rate, this calculation is simple and straight forward. A $10 per hour employee earns an overtime rate of $15 per overtime hour. Easy peasy.

Often times, however, employees aren’t just paid a straight hourly rate. Uh oh.

The 20th nominee for the “worst employer of 2019” is … the malignant mogul

The 20th (and final) nominee for the Worst Employer of 2019 is Alki David, heir to the Coca-Cola bottling fortune and owner of several media firms.

The evidence?

This week, a jury awarded over $58 million to a female employee who accused him of thrusting his pelvis into her face, simulating oral sex, moaning, and zipping up his pants and walking away saying, “Thanks, M.K.”

As sure as today is Cyber Monday, your employees are shopping from work

Today is Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the holiday season. In fact, it is estimated that today will be the biggest online shopping day ever, with over $9.4 billion in sales.

And, guess what? Given that most of those doing the shopping will be spending the majority of their prime shopping hours at work, from where do you think they will be making most of their Cyber Monday purchases.

WIRTW #578 (the “credibility” edition)

Yesterday, the NFL upheld the indefinite suspension of Cleveland Browns’ defensive lineman Myles Garrett, who last week assaulted Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Mason Rudolph on the field with his helmet.

At his suspension hearing, Garrett attempted to mitigate his misconduct by claiming that Rudolph had used a racial slur on the field.

Garrett’s problem? It was the first time he had raised that claim in the week following the incident. He didn’t raise it on the field. Or after the game. Or to the media. Or at any time prior to his hearing. Even his teammates were caught off guard by the claim. And that’s a huge problem for the credibility of his defense.

In harassment cases, credibility is everything. And if employee waits until a trial or hearing to raise a claim of harassment, his (or her) credibility, as well as their claim, is shot.

Here’s what I read this week.

“Hairstyle discrimination” laws: a solution in search of a problem

I fully embrace the irony of a local news broadcast holding me out as the expert on hair discrimination. 👨🏻‍🦲

Irony notwithstanding, here I am on last night’s 6 o’clock news discussing why we don’t need to ban workplace hairstyle discrimination. (Big thank you to WEWS’s Mike Brookbank for reaching out and for the interview.)

Is your business prepared for a cyber attack? (probably not, but I can help.)

I’d like to share three scary cybersecurity statistics with you.

1. 60 percent of small businesses fail within 6 months of a cyber attack.
2. 72 percent of small businesses rate their ability to mitigate cyber risks, vulnerabilities and attacks as other than highly effective.
3. 90 percent of data breaches are caused by human error.

These numbers mean that most of you reading this post work for a company that is not doing nearly enough to mitigate your cyber-risk. Coupled with the truth that data breaches are a when issue, and not an if issue, these numbers also mean that everyone’s data is way too exposed, and no matter what you are currently doing in this space, everyone can do more.

Meyers Roman is here to help.

It’s not realistic to expect employees not to discuss politics at work, but it is to require them to do so professionally

According to a recent survey conducted by SHRM [pdf], American workers cannot hide from politics at work.

• 42% of U.S. employees say they have personally experienced political disagreements at work
• 44% say they have witnessed political disagreements at work
• 34% believe that their workplace is not inclusive of differing political perspectives
• 12% report they have personally experienced political affiliation bias or discrimination based on their political views
• 56% state that political discussions at work have become more common over the past four years