Search results for “Wage Act”


Just as in romance, employer-employee relationships often are at their best in the courting stage.  During the after-glow of an initial hire, many employers wish to make new employees feel welcome by sending confirmatory offer letters.  Yet, in that warm and fuzzy moment, employers also should keep in mind that they may be binding themselves to certain obligations to which they never intended to be bound. 

To minimize regret when the employer-employee relationship goes sour, here are my top six tips of things to avoid in offer letters:

  1. If you intend for the employee to actually stay on for a set period of time, the term may be included, but be sure to couch the term as “anticipated term” and allow yourself the ability to terminate the relationship before the end of the term.  If the employment is “at-will,” specifically state “your employment is at-will, which means that you or the company may terminate your employment at any time for any reason or no reason at all.”
  2. Avoid stating compensation as an annual salary.  For example, state that the compensation to be provided an employee is $X per week, which is the equivalent of $Y annualized.  A promise of
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With greater frequency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been exerting its authority over non-union employers.  I’d like to share an article that I co-authored with my colleague, Mike Leahy, for the Spring 2012 issue of Focus, our firm’s quarterly newsletter, about a few recent developments from the NLRB affecting non-union employers, resulting from the use of social media.  The full issue of Focus is available here.

A few years ago, many employers feared that use of social media would lead to disclosure of their confidential information and trade secrets, and implemented policies to stay ahead of the curve.  Over the past year, high profile cases involving those social media policies have provided a timely reminder that the  Depression-era National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) continues to apply to union-free workplaces, and not just unionized workplaces.

Indeed, the current chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently announced that he wants the NLRB to be viewed as a “resource for people with workplace concerns that may have nothing to do with union activities.” He has the law on his side.  Section 7 of the NLRA gives employees the right “to engage in…concerted activities for the purpose … Keep reading


As summer internship season approaches, employers should carefully institute internship programs which comply with the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). 

The Test.

In the case of “for-profit” companies, unpaid internships must meet the strict criteria of the FLSA.  Specifically, as stated in U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) FLSA Fact Sheet #71 unpaid interns must:

  1. Receive training similar to that provided in an educational environment
  2. Be for the benefit of the intern, and not the employer
  3. Not displace regular paid employees
  4. Be closely supervised by existing staff
  5. Not be used for the immediate advantage of the employer (and in some cases, may impede the employer’s operations)
  6. Not necessarily be entitled to a job after the end of the internship
  7. Understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for time spent in the internship

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Even the most sophisticated employer in the most intellectually demanding industry may misclassify its workers as “exempt” when they are, in fact “non-exempt.”  The increasing number of misclassification litigation is a sure sign that no one is completely immune from inadvertently misclassifying workers. 

What exactly are the workers “exempt” from anyway?  The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that workers be paid a minimum wage for every hour they work and an overtime premium for any hours in excess of 40 hours worked in a week, but it permits employers from excluding certain types of employees from each of these requirements; hence, they are “exempt” employees.  The most common areas of exemption are known as the “white collar” exemptions.  These exempt employees are:

Of course, these “white collar” classifications may appear straightforward, but like the roads in the Tuscan hillside, they can become quite foggy and have twists and turns from time to time.  Don’t fall for the typical myths about exempt classifications.

Myth No. 1:  If the employee is paid a “salary” rather than “hourly,” the employee must be “exempt.”

Although any employee who is paid on an “hourly” basis … Keep reading

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