A pizza delivery driver’s challenge to a 35-cent-per-mile reimbursement rate is back before a federal court in Colorado, reminding employers that mileage reimbursements can create wage-and-hour exposure. The Tenth Circuit revived the driver’s complaint against a Papa John’s franchise operator, which now faces minimum wage and overtime claims. Driver Files Wage and Hour Class Action […]
DoorDash will pay $131.5 million to resolve New York City findings that it failed to pay delivery workers fully or on time and violated the city’s minimum-pay requirements. The nine-figure worker settlement – the largest in NYC history and the largest U.S. municipal settlement involving food-delivery workers – will provide more than $115 million to […]
Under a proposal from the Department of Consumer and Business Services, Oregon employers would pay an average of 92 cents per $100 of payroll for workers’ compensation coverage in 2027. The proposed average pure premium rate would increase 2.1%, while the average loaded pure premium would rise to 92 cents per $100 of payroll in […]
Informal cash-pay practices leave wage payments and hours worked outside normal payroll controls — and that can be an expensive mistake. Case in point: A Washington state court ordered Alan Tagle and Tagle & Partners LLC to pay $1.86 million to 70 former Beehive Espresso baristas in a wage-and-hour class action. The award includes: Attorneys’ […]
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $259 million in back wages for nearly 177,000 employees in fiscal year 2025, the most since 2019. The lion’s share – more than $184 million – involved violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Federal wage-and-hour policy changed this year, too, affecting exemption […]
A signed acknowledgment isn't proof a policy change worked. Here's how to match each policy rollout to the right level of communication and track whether behavior actually shifted.
How much might an employer have to pay when it fails to reinstate striking employees? NLRB Region 6 has approved a $3.66 million settlement with Langeloth Metallurgical Co. It resolves allegations that the company failed to reinstate, or delayed reinstating, former strikers after their union made an unconditional offer to return to work in September […]
Some employees are afraid to tell you about misconduct they’ve seen or experienced. And the silence can have even greater consequences than the actual misbehavior. Fifty-five percent of employees experienced or witnessed misconduct, up 14 points in two years, according to HR Acuity’s Harassment and Misconduct Report. Two-thirds of those incidents were in an office environment. The top infractions […]
Employers participating in E-Verify can use an expanded report to identify current employees who may require Form I-9 reverification. The Department of Homeland Security recently expanded the E-Verify Status Change Report to include invalidated employment authorization documents (EADs) in the following categories: Previously, the report covered only EADs in the C11 parolee category. DHS updates […]
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) debarred a Louisiana farmer from the H-2A visa program for one year after investigators found violations involving job terms and worker pay. The H-2A visa program allows agricultural employers facing a shortage of domestic workers to hire foreign workers for temporary or seasonal work. Under the program, employers must […]
Is your hotline report count a good sign or a warning sign? Here's how to benchmark your speak-up culture and build ethics training that goes beyond completion rates.
A harassment investigation is judged as much on process as on outcome. Here's how HR can build a defensible investigation process and the incident management foundation that supports it.
Misclassifying employees as independent contractors can leave employers facing significant wage-and-hour liability. DMV Protection LLC is a security service company that provides security personnel for clients. Except for the owner, everyone at DMV – from security guards to the director of operations – is classified as an independent contractor (IC). Guards must sign an IC […]
What if a benefits platform is the barrier preventing an employee from accessing benefits? As new tech tools become part of routine workplace processes, HR has to stay alert for compliance risks those technologies may introduce. Case in point: Pearson Education agreed to pay $150,000 to resolve an EEOC dispute alleging disability discrimination tied to […]
At what level of authority does a manager become exempt from overtime? A federal judge in Maine approved an $8.875 million settlement involving salaried department managers at Hannaford Supermarkets. The managers, who oversaw the bakery, deli, produce and meat departments, were classified as exempt. They alleged they worked more than 40 hours a week without […]
A rejected candidate asks why they never made it past the first round. An employee wants to know why they were passed over for promotion. A manager relies on an AI-generated performance summary that no one can explain. In each case, AI made the decision, but HR will face the risk and be asked to […]
