The New York Times has this article about the Obama Administration’s effort to enforce the child labor and wage and hour laws on farms, and describes the effort in North Carolina in particular. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) contains several exceptions for farmworkers, but sometimes-ignored restrictions of child labor are apparently now being more vigorously enforced.
Categories: General News
In a case that appears to one of first impression at the federal appellate level, the Ninth Circuit ruled in Cumbie v. Woody Woo, Inc., that there are no tip-pooling claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for restaurant employees who are paid more than the minimum wage before tips. FLSA, the federal wage and hour law, regulates how tips can be distributed and/or shared as part of its regulation of the minimum wage. As restaurants commonly do, servers can be paid a small base amount and make the rest of their wages in tips. Properly arranged, the tips paid to the servers are a “tip credit” for the employers that combines with the base pay to meet the minimum wage. An employer can use a “tip pool” as part of its tipping system if it meets two requirements: (1) the employee is fully informed; and (2) the tip pool only includes “other customarily tipped employees.” Disputes often involve this second requirement, e.g. if tips are shared with managers (who are not customarily tipped).
Reading the FLSA in this way, the Court held that because the servers in this case (who had brought a class and collective action case) were receiving a base pay that was already greater than the minimum wage, the employer was not taking advantage of the “tip credit,” and therefore did not have follow the tip-pooling regulations. Of course, if the servers’ base pay had been less than minimum wage, the outcome would be entirely different. (Also note that different analysis may apply under the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act.)
Categories: Judicial Decisions
The federal Department of Labor is stepping up enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) with regard to unpaid internships because such arrangements very well could be violating the FLSA’s minimum wage requirements.
In other FLSA news, the Health Care Reform legislation (technically the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) contained a little-noticed provision that requires employers to provide breaks for nursing mothers. The amendment will require all employers subject to the FLSA to provide rest breaks to mothers who wish to express breast milk. The new law states that employers with fewer than 50 employees are not required to provide the breaks “if such requirements would impose an undue hardship by causing the employer significant difficulty or expense when considered in relation to the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the employer’s business.” DOL regulations explicating the provision are sure to follow.
Categories: Legislative Action
A new study, “Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers,” shows that employers routinely violate the employment rights of low wage workers, with frequent violations of the wage and hour laws, workers’ compensation laws, and anti-retaliation protections. (The original study is here; a summary of the study is here.) Here are some of the startling findings:
Categories: General News
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