Employment law attorneys from the Employers Counsel Network comment on the effects employers will feel now that the Trump administration's rule on employee classification has been withdrawn.

It’s hard to believe many of us have been working from home because of the COVID-19 outbreak for more than a year. In addition, many teleworkers have been operating on flexible schedules. The consistent question for employers is: How do we pay nonexempt employees working flexible schedules from home? Here is the answer (at least for now).

While some portions of the Trump administration tipped worker rule will go into effect on April 30, the more controversial portions of the rule, including civil money penalties and tip credits for workers who perform both tipped and nontipped work, are being delayed until December 31.

President Joe Biden’s Executive Order requiring federal contractors to pay their workers at least $15 an hour isn’t seen as having a major immediate effect, but it does reinforce the administration’s effort to advocate for a $15 national minimum wage.

Employment law attorneys from the Employers Counsel Network discuss the Paycheck Fairness Act, which is being considered in the U.S. Senate after passing the House.

In March 2018, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a new pilot program, the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program. The employer-friendly program was intended to expedite the resolution of inadvertent overtime and minimum wage violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by encouraging employers to audit their payroll practices and self-report unintended payroll errors. After the initial pilot period ended, it became a permanent feature of the WHD until January 29, 2021, when the division announced its immediate termination. The Biden administration explained its rationale by stating the program “deprived workers of their rights and put employers that play by the rules at a disadvantage.”

One of our firm’s clients is a large employer under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), with an employee working 26 hours per week during the day plus two nights per week on-call while at home. It recently asked if it could include the on-call hours to bring her eligibility up to 30 hours. Read on for our answer.