Employment Law

Subscribe to Employment Law

In January 2021, the Ninth Circuit upheld a 2018 ruling by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”), which found that federal law preempts California state meal and rest break laws as applied to drivers of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles. A few months later, the United States Supreme Court denied a petition challenging the Ninth Circuit’s decision. We previously wrote about the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, and the Supreme Court’s denial, in a post that you can read here.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Confirms FMCSA Preemption of California’s Meal and Rest Break Laws Applies Retroactively

On December 7, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Speak Out Act (the “Act”), which limits the enforceability of pre-dispute non-disclosure and non-disparagement clauses covering sexual assault and sexual harassment disputes. The bipartisan Act was previously passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives by an overwhelming majority. …
Continue Reading Speak Out Act Restricts Use of Non-Disclosure and Non-Disparagement Provisions

Voters in the District of Columbia, Nebraska, and Nevada overwhelmingly approved minimum wage-related ballot initiatives during this year’s midterm elections. The political movement to establish a $15.00 minimum wage started in 2012 when 200 New York City fast food workers walked off the job demanding better pay and union rights. Despite inaction by the federal government in the subsequent decade, there continues to be bipartisan support for minimum wage increases, particularly at the state level, as illustrated by the success of these three ballot measures. …
Continue Reading D.C., Nebraska, and Nevada Voters Approve Minimum Wage Increases

On October 24, 2022, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Cadena v. Customer Connexx LLC holding that the time employees spend booting up their computers is compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (the “FLSA”). The decision reverses a 2021 Nevada district court’s decision that came to the opposite conclusion, holding that time spent initiating computers was not compensable.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Requires Employee Compensation for Pre-Shift Duties Under FLSA

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is expected to propose new rules on independent contractor classification and overtime entitlement requirements in the coming weeks. The proposals would alter the qualifications for certain employees to receive overtime payments under the Fair Labor Standards Act when they work in excess of 40 hours in one week.
Continue Reading Upcoming Proposed Changes to DOL’s Independent Contractor and Overtime Rules

Last Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) published in the Federal Register its newly-proposed rule regarding independent contractor vs. employee classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA” or the “Act”).  Businesses have anticipated the release of this proposed rule from the Biden administration’s DOL since the DOL withdrew a more employer-friendly, Trump-era independent contractor rule in May 2021 that had not yet gone into effect.…

Continue Reading DOL Proposes Updates to Independent Contractor Requirements

We previously posted about Washington, D.C.’s new law governing non-competes, which became effective on October 1, 2022. D.C. employers, however, should be aware of a provision buried in the law that has nothing to do with non-competes and requires action by the end of this month. …
Continue Reading What Most Employers in Washington D.C. Need to Do Before October 31

Since we last reported on the delay of the District of Columbia’s Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Act of 2020 (the “Act”), the D.C. Council passed the Non-Compete Clarification Amendment Act of 2022 (the “Amendment”), effective October 1, 2022, which significantly rolled back some of the more prohibitive features of the original 2020 version of the Act. …
Continue Reading New Amendments Overhaul D.C. Ban on Non-Competes