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.

Vacation (all I ever wanted) — 7 tips to encourage your employees to use their paid time off

"AITA for turning my work phone off on vacation?" That's the question that someone recently posted on the eponymous subreddit.

The recently promoted employee disconnected during his vacation. During a moment of downtime, he powered up his work phone, only to find this voicemail from his new manager, demanding to know why he wasn't zooming in for meetings.

I checked my phone voicemail and the unknown number was him saying he "hoped there was a damn good excuse for why I was off the grid" if I wanted to keep my job. He even started out the voicemail with "I'm so sorry you’re in the hospital because that's the only reason I should be needing to hunt you down like this." In slack I had a few dms from coworkers I feel I get along with saying I need to reply ASAP because my absence was impacting them with how mad our boss was.

No, he's not the a***ole.

This dissenting opinion in the United Airlines vaccine-mandate case is 58 pages of pure judicial rage

It's been a little over three months since a federal district court in Forth Worth, Texas, denied a preliminary injunction to a group of unvaccinated employees of United Airlines challenging its vaccine mandate. The court so ruled because the employees, whom United had placed on an unpaid leave of absence, had a viable claim for money damages and with that adequate legal remedy couldn't simultaneously seek an equitable remedy. 

It's been a little over two months since a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to issue an injunction pending the appeal of that district court decision. 

Late last week, however, a different three-judge panel of that same appellate court concluded that the employees had established irreparable harm to support their claim for injunctive relief and sent the case back to the district court to reconsider its prior ruling in light of that holding.

WIRTW #614: the “North Star” edition

I spent yesterday at my kids' school, Lake Ridge Academy. With the assistance of Grant Lichtman, an internationally recognized thought leader in the drive to transform K-12 education, I, along with the school's faculty, staff, and administration, some other parents, some students, and my fellow board members, spent the better part of the day brainstorming to determine the school's North Star — the one thing that will move the school forward with us all moving in the same direction, or, to put it differently, the one thing that will make us irresistible.

We learned a lot about us as a school and where we want to be. It was a rewarding, engaging, and energizing exercise from which any organization (or person) would benefit. 

What is your North Star? Or your business's North Star? Share in the comments below.

Here's what I read this past week that I think you should be reading, too.

An employer has disability discrimination problems if the interactive process isn’t interactive

You'd think an employer with the name Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities would know a thing or two about complying with workplace discrimination laws. 

You'd think.

A step in the right direction to ending workplace sexual harassment

When is the last time you recall Congress agreeing on anything? Well, it happened last week, when the Senate passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (full text here.)

Simply, once signed by President Biden (which should happen imminently), any agreement that requires an employee to submit a sexual harassment claim to private arbitration, or waive their right to participate in a class or collective action, would be invalid and unenforceable. 

What do you do for a living?

The question, "What do you do for a living," doesn't have a straight-line answer. My law firm bio offers several answers. 

There is a lot to unpack in that bio.