The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is one of the oldest employment laws in the United States. Congress enacted the FLSA “in order to eliminate ‘labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers.’ ” Antenor v. D & S Farms, 88 F.3d 925, 929 (11th Cir. 1996) (quoting 29 U.S.C. §202(a) & (b)). As such, 29 U.S.C. §207 requires that employers pay time and a half for those hours that an employee works in excess of the standard forty-hour work week.
As simple as that statement may sound, the amount of litigation based on these words has increased significantly over the last fifteen years. The litigation has been in the form of class actions wherein a class of employees can opt into the lawsuit or single plaintiff cases brought by one employee. However, the claim is brought, employees usually allege that the employer has failed to pay overtime for hours worked or has taken some action that caused the employee’s hourly wage to fall below the statutory minimum. Employees have sought back pay because they were improperly classified as a salaried employee, improperly classified as an independent contractor or they were not paid for all the hours they worked. Sometimes, unfortunately, the employer failed to keep good records to prove otherwise.
Which Employers Are Covered?
Employers with annual revenue of $500,000 who engage in interstate commerce are covered by the...
(The Lion) — A Senate Democrat has proposed a bill to repeal the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, which passed in President Donald Trump’s budget bill last year. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, m...