For nonexempt, hourly employees who don’t have access to the time clock during the day (they’re delivery drivers), how should we handle their meal breaks? Can we automatically deduct 30 minutes from their hours?

According to a news release by the Department of Labor (DOL), child labor violations are on the rise, with the department seeing a 69% increase in violations since 2018. The DOL is cracking down on employers found to be violating child labor laws and has found violations across multiple industries, including in manufacturing, food production, and hospitality. The rise in violations has become so egregious that Congress is now turning its attention to the issue.

On August 30, 2023, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding 29 CFR part 541, which governs compensation for exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) white-collar exemptions. The stated goal, which the contemplated regulations are clearly tailored to accomplish, is to significantly decrease the number of employees who are exempt under the FLSA.

When you see the packages of strawberries in the produce department, you probably don’t consider whose employees grew, packaged, and shipped them. The court of appeal recently had to consider whether farmworkers work for an individual employer or a joint employer.

As we previously reported, New York has enacted statewide “pay transparency” legislation that will take effect on September 17, 2023. On March 3, 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul signed an amendment to the legislation that clarifies the application of the law, including with respect to remote workers, and removes certain recordkeeping requirements. The amendments also expand the exterritorial reach of the legislation by applying it to searches for workers who will not work at all in New York but have a reporting relationship to New York.

For the first time in almost 40 years, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced the issuance of regulations designed to update and modernize the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts (DBRA), which require the payment of locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits on federal contracts for construction. The aptly named final rule, Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulations (the Rule), will go into effect 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

A pro-employee jury verdict arising from an employer’s productivity policy was recently greenlighted by the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit (which covers Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) and was framed as a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective action (the FLSA version of a class action).