Federal Fixed Workweek Regulations

January 30th, 2009 Posted by Amelia

The U.S. Department of Labor or DOL announced on January 15, 2009 that Sandia Corp. has agreed to pay more than $2 million in back wages for unpaid .

 

In an interesting wrinkle, the Albuquerque employer apparently tried to avoid overtime payments for non-exempt employees by setting no fixed .

 

Under the federal or Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay an employee overtime when the employee works more than 40 hours in the payroll week.

 

Information on the FLSA requirements for overtime are included on the federal minimum wage poster that every employer must prominently display in the workplace.

 

By not having a fixed payroll week, Sandia averaged the employees’ hours over two or more weeks. Under the FLSA, an employer can establish any fixed payroll week that the employer likes. The payroll week can run from Sunday to Saturday, or from Monday to Sunday, or from Thursday to Wednesday. Under some circumstances, an employer can change the payroll week, as long as employees are given advance notice.

 

However, the employee’s workweek must be a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, (more…)

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New York Nursing Mothers Act

January 29th, 2009 Posted by Cara

mothers must be given accommodation by their employers in under a .

 

The law is the New York Nursing Mothers in the Workplace , passed in 2007. New York joins several other states, including Colorado and Illinois, in passing a law protecting breastfeeding mothers who are working. The bill passed the New York general assembly almost unanimously.

 

Under the new law working mothers who are breastfeeding must be given a  time and place to pump milk. They are entitled to unpaid break time, and a room must be provided. The room should be private and near the work station. The law states that storage areas and bathrooms are not appropriate.

 

“This law is in place to make sure that nursing mothers have reasonable privacy and are treated in a respectful manner at their place of ,” said Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith. “I encourage anyone not being afforded these rights to contact the labor department at 1-800-447-3992 to speak to one of our investigators,” she added.

 

Under the labor law, Smith noted, any nursing in New York now has the right to express their breast milk in the workplace.

 

Women with infants and children make up one of the most significant, fast-growing segments of the workforce nationwide. The New York Department of health has said that continuing breastfeeding after going back to work is a big challenge for new mothers. Some give up nursing after returning because of the lack of privacy to express milk and because of unsupportive work environments as well as work schedules.

 

The New York law protects mothers during an infant’s first three years. Management may not discriminate against mothers who fall under the protection of the law.

 

According to the Lawyer’s Alliance for New York, employers would be well advised to include information in handbooks about the new rights of breastfeeding mothers.

 

State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D., stressed the health benefits, both to infants and mothers, of breastfeeding, noting that such infants have less risk of contracting asthma, obesity, diabetes and other chronic illnesses. The effects carry throughout one’s lifetime, he said.

 

 

 

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2009 Ohio Minimum Wage is $7.30

January 28th, 2009 Posted by Madison

 According to the Ohio Department of Commerce, the of increased its as of January 1, 2009.

 

The Ohio minimum wage, which tracks the cost of living, went up by 30 cents an hour. The old was $7.00 per hour and the rate is $7.30.

 

The increase in Ohio is not the largest increase in the minimum wage nationwide. In Washington, the increase was 48 cents an hour – to $8.55 hourly from $8.07. Oregon experienced a 45-cent hike, bringing its rate to $8.40 hourly. Connecticut’s rate also went up by 45 cents an hour. The new Connecticut minimum is now $8.00 an hour.

 

Altogether, 11 states increased their minimum wage rates as of January 1, 2009.

 

The largest actual minimum wage increase was in New . Under a new law passed by voters in 2006, the rate went up $1.00 an hour, from $6.50 to $7.50. New ’s increase was not based on the cost of living, however.

 

In November of 2006, voters in Ohio approved a constitutional amendment mandating that the minimum wage track the inflation rate annual. The state uses the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for urban wage earners and clerical workers for a 12-month period that ends each August.

 

Because the CPI climbed 4.6% between September 1, 2007 and August 21, 2008, Ohio’s minimum wage also showed an atypically large jump, as did the wage rates in several other states as well.

 

This January 1 the minimum wage for Ohio workers receiving tips also went up. The new rate is $3.65 hourly, an increase of 15 cents. If a tipped in Ohio does not earn an average of $3.65 an hour in tips, then the management is required to make up the difference.

 

Ohio law has an exception whereby smaller companies may pay their workers less than larger companies do. If revenue is below $267,000 in 2009, the company is allowed to pay $6.55 an hour. However, that will only be the case until July 24, 2009, when the new minimum wage of $7.25 an hour overrides lower rates.

 

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New York Conviction Law

January 27th, 2009 Posted by Jolie

Ex-convicts and others with criminal convictions are the subject of a workplace in New York .

 

The poster outlines what is known as Article 23 A of the . The article, signed into by New York’s Governor David Paterson, outlines the law as it applies to of people with criminal records.

 

Under the law, New York employers are legally allowed to consider the of a job-hunter as a negative issue when deciding on hiring, provided the crime the candidate was convicted for relates directly to the job or the license sought.

 

However, if the crime does not directly relate to the job, the employer cannot consider it during the hiring process. The new law makes it illegal discrimination to do so.

 

As an example, if an accountant had been convicted of embezzling from the bank in which he worked, another bank need not hire him. On the other hand, if this same accountant had been convicted, not of embezzlement, but of selling drugs, under the new law the employer is not permitted to consider that conviction when making a hiring decision.

 

Whenever an applicant with a criminal record is refused a job, the employer (more…)

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2009 New Mexico Minimum Wage is $7.50

January 26th, 2009 Posted by Derrick

New Mexico’s hike for 2009 was the largest single increase in any for January, 2009.

 

According to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, the increased  $1.00 an hour on January 1, 2009, from $6.50 an hour to $7.50 an hour. Minimum wage for for most employees will be $11.25 an hour.

 

The New law has its share of exceptions. For example, seasonal employees in some counties are not under the protection of the minimum wage laws, nor are employees of cotton gins. Typically, both the overtime and the minimum wage laws are not applicable to genuine executives, administrators, professionals, supervisors, and superintendents.

 

Any employer who has not updated his or her New Mexico minimum wage poster should do so now.

 

Certain workers who are hired to perform investigative for the federal government are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, otherwise known as the . State law exempts them from the overtime law, which requires that employees working more than 40 hours a week must be paid 1.5 times their regular rate for their overtime. Nevertheless, they are still entitled to the , at the least.

 

The minimum wage in New Mexico, incidentally, does not cover those workers under 18 who have not graduated from high school. It is a seldom-utilized and little-known aspect of New Mexico labor law.

  (more…)

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