labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Many employers have questions about the COBRA subsidies offered under the Obama administration’s stimulus plan, which was signed into law on February 17, 2009.

The  ARRA, or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, included a provision to subsidize extended health insurance coverage under COBRA, for some eligible employees.

The plan applies only to an “assistance eligible individual” or AEI who is laid off through no fault of his or her own, or is a dependent of a laid-off employee.

The subsidy applies beginning March 1, 2009 for employers who use calendar months for healthcare coverage.

Under the plan, the employee pays just 35% of his or her COBRA health care premium. The employer pays the other 65% of the COBRA premium. Employers can then take a tax credit (more…)

Employers may need to implement new payroll procedures due to a recent 8^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on overtime.

In a Nebraska lawsuit against Famous Dave’s restaurant chain, the appeal court upheld the lower court ruling that the employer should have known that employees were working a more than one Famous Dave’s location.

The restaurant chain is based in Minnesota and has both franchise and company-owened locations throughout the Midwest.

The court found that most Omaha restaurants had policies prohibiting employees from working at more than one location. When an employee had permission to work at several locations, the employer had a system in place to combine the employees hours to calculate overtime.

However, Famous Dave’s  had no policy prohibiting employees from working at more than one location. A number of employees did work at two or more locations. Their hours were not combined to calculate overtime, (more…)

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 overtime.

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

Under the federal FLSA 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…)

The New Hampshire Department of Labor in Concord has issued an employer alert regarding direct deposit.

The New Hampshire Department of Labor has received a number of complaints that employers are requiring direct deposit and/or pay cards for payroll. This is not legal, under New Hampshire law. Every employer must offer a check for payment of wages at no cost to the employee, if requested. In addition, the check must be on a financial institution convenient to the place of employment. Employees must be able to cash their paychecks and receive the full amount of payment due. In other words, the nearby financial institution may not charge a fee for cashing the checks.

New Hampshire employers may opt to offer direct deposit and authorized pay cards as payment. However, they cannot require that employees use one of these payment methods. Every employee is entitled to payment by payroll check, if he or she prefers.

Under RS 275:43, employers must pay workers in cash. An acceptable alternative is a payroll check drawn on a nearby bank, or a (more…)

A new online tool unveiled by the US Department of Labor aims to simplify recordkeeping, reporting and notice requirements for employers. Employers – especially small business owners — have long criticized the federal government because they claimed it was nearly impossible to sort out  which regulations applied to their business.

The FirstStep Recordkeeping, Reporting and Notices elaws Advisor was rolled out last month.

“These internet tools will make it easier for small business employers to learn about a d comply with the federal laws that apply to them, “ said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao.

  (more…)