On Thursday, the California Supreme Court held the federal Fair Labor Standards Act de minimis rule, which limits suits over small increments of unpaid time upon a showing that the bits of time are administratively difficult to record, does not apply to California wage order claims. Limiting its holding to the facts of the case, […]
In 1974 the United States Supreme Court in American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah held that the timely filing of a class action tolls the applicable statute of limitations for all persons encompassed by the class complaint. This holding was clarified in 1983 in Crown, Cork & Seal Co. v. Parker to provide that […]
In January, California ushered in a new law designed to strengthen wage protections for employees who work under private construction contracts. The law makes all “direct contractors” potentially liable for wages incurred by an employee of any subcontractor-at any tier. The statute attempts to limit the remedies to those of unpaid wages, fringe or benefit […]
On Monday, the California Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision to reject 30-year old precedent which focused the inquiry on the amount of control the company exercises over the worker, embracing a new test for determining whether a worker is properly classified as an independent contractor for wage order claims. In Dynamex v. Superior […]
On April 20, 2018, the California Court of Appeal, in the case Nguyen v. Inter-Coast International Training, Inc., held that an arbitration agreement contained in an employee handbook was both procedurally and substantively unconscionable. In that case, after a wage and hour class action was filed and certified against the employer, the employer modified its […]
On April 24, 2018, New Jersey’s Governor, Phil Murphy, signed the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act (the “Act”) into law. Recognized as the strongest equal pay law in the United States, the Act amends New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination to make it unlawful for employers to compensate employees who are members of a protected […]
On April 9, 2018, the Ninth Circuit ruled en banc that an employee’s prior salary does not constitute a “factor other than sex” to justify wage disparities between male and female employees. “Other than sex” factors is limited to legitimate, job-related factors, including the candidate’s experience, educational background, ability, or prior job performance. The court […]
In this week’s L&E Legal Alert, Jennifer Yee and Josh Woodard take a deeper dive into the Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro where the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the longstanding principle that courts construe FLSA exemptions narrowly and, instead, adopted a “fair reading” standard. For more information, see here.
In a 5-4 opinion issued on April 2nd, the United States Supreme Court held that service advisers at car dealerships are exempt from the overtime pay requirement of the FLSA because they are “salesm[e]n . . . primarily engaged in . . . servicing automobiles.” This ruling is significant for not only the auto industry, […]
Earlier this week the California Supreme Court ruled that when calculating the regular rate of pay for flat rate bonuses an employer must divide the employee’s total pay (including the bonus) by the employee’s total non-overtime hours worked and multiply the result by 1.5 for each overtime hour worked. This diverges from the federal regulations […]
