America’s Workers Earning At Or Below The Federal Minimum Wage

The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics has released a report titled "Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2012." The report shows that 75.3 million workers in the United States age 16 and over were paid at hourly rates, representing 59 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 1.6 million earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 2 million had wages below the federal minimum.
 
The report also shows that nearly one-half of those earning at or below the federal minimum wage is at least 25 years old, and women represent nearly one-third of those working adults. More than a third of those earning at or below the current federal minimum wage is working full-time. Finally, 15 percent of those earning at or below the federal minimum wage is African-American, and one-fifth is Latino or Hispanic.

Acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris has issued the following statement about the report:

"Workers earning the federal minimum wage have not had a raise in nearly four years. As the report makes clear, many are working adults with full-time jobs, and we know that some low-wage workers are holding down more than one job.

"It is an outrage that someone who works full time should have to raise his or her family in poverty. Ensuring hard work is rewarded is the right thing to do for these workers and our economy. That's why the president has called for raising the federal minimum wage to $9.00 per hour by 2015, and indexing it to inflation thereafter. The BLS report looked at only those currently earning at or below the federal minimum wage. According to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, raising the federal minimum wage will result in nearly 15 million low-wage workers getting a raise in their take-home pay. That money will be spent locally at the grocery store, to buy school supplies and clothing for children, to pay rent and utility bills, and in many other ways to support families.

"In fiscal year 2012, the department's Wage and Hour Division found minimum wage violations in more than 12,500 investigations — more than a third of all cases concluded by the agency that fiscal year. These cases resulted in $35.2 million in back minimum wages for more than 107,000 workers, more than twice what we recovered in similar investigations in fiscal year 2009. Unfortunately, our ability to enforce the law and protect our most vulnerable workers will be threatened if Congress fails to act to avert the coming sequester.

"Over the next few weeks, our economy, national security and services that are important to middle-class families will be affected by automatic, arbitrary and irresponsible cuts if Congress fails to act. The president has offered a compromise plan. Congress must act immediately."

Read the BLS report at http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2012.htm.

Source: DOL

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

Boosting the Minimum Wage for America's Workers

Acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris hit the road this week for conversations outside the Beltway on what increasing the minimum wage would mean for America's workers. In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage in stages to $9 in 2015, and indexing it to inflation thereafter. Harris was in Philadelphia on Feb. 14 to discuss the president's plan with workers from the fast food and other service sectors. They shared their stories of sacrifice and hardship, and emphasized that no one who works full-time should have to raise a family in poverty. Harris spoke about how the president's plan will boost wages for about 15 million American workers. "For them," Harris said, "being rewarded an honest day's wage for an honest day's work will help them climb into the middle class."

To read the more click here

Source: DOL

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

Federal Court Decertifies Another Auto-Deduct Meal Break Case Against a Healthcare Provider

Building upon a growing body of case law finding automatic-deduction meal break claims are not suitable for class or collective action treatment (see here and here), an Ohio federal judge decertified a collective action against a national system of medical and rehabilitation care facilities by registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, and admissions coordinators who claimed they were not paid for missed or interrupted meal breaks that were automatically deducted from pay. In Creely v. HCR ManorCare, Inc., Littler attorneys convinced the court that the employees’ experiences were too diverse to allow the case to proceed as a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Although they acknowledged that the healthcare provider had a policy for overriding the automatic deduction, the employees claimed that this “illegally shifted the burden of monitoring compensable work time to individual employees” by requiring employees to cancel the automatically deducted time when they did not receive an uninterrupted meal break. The court rejected this theory, as a matter of law.

The employees also argued that they were not trained or informed about the override policy, and they did not report missed or interrupted meal breaks because managers discouraged them from doing so. The court disagreed, stating: “What is apparent from the record here is that Plaintiffs’ knowledge of and training on the policy, and the application of the auto-deduct policy itself, varied in large part depending on the individual managers at Defendant’s facilities.”

At the lenient first stage of the case, the court had conditionally certified the case as a collective action, and notice was sent to approximately 3,200 employees at 29 facilities in 27 states. Less than 10 percent, or 318 current and former employees, opted-in to join the lawsuit. The discovery and depositions demonstrated that each opt-in’s situation was unique – requiring individual findings of fact and individualized defenses.

To read the full article, click here

Source: Healthcare Employment Counsel
 

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

PCM Construction Services To Pay Back Wages

PCM Construction Services LLC in Apex, NC has agreed to pay 195 employees $72,143 in back wages following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that identified violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime and record-keeping provisions. The department also assessed $36,465 in civil money penalties for repeat violations.
An investigation conducted by the division’s Raleigh District Office found the employer failed to pay overtime compensation at time and one-half the employees’ regular rates of pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, as required. Instead, the employer paid employees who were not exempt from overtime requirements fixed salaries, without regard to the number of hours worked. The employer also failed to keep accurate records of the hours employees worked.

“Simply paying an employee a salary does not eliminate the requirement to pay overtime,” said Richard Blaylock, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s Raleigh office. “This employer had full knowledge of the law’s requirements, yet chose to pay employees less than they had legally earned. This practice is unacceptable. The back wages found due and the assessment of a civil money penalty in this case should put other employers on notice to ensure that they are paying employees in compliance with the law.”

A previous investigation of PCM Construction Services by the Wage and Hour Division found more than $93,600 due to 114 employees for violations of the FLSA’s overtime requirements. The employer has agreed to pay the back wages found due in full, and to comply with the FLSA in the future. PCM Construction Services is a general contractor engaged in removing debris from construction sites.

To read the full article, click here.

Source: DOL

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

Dallas-based Company To Pay Back Wages

Paradise Detail Ltd. in Dallas has agreed to pay 82 current and former detail and car wash employees $229,475 in back wages following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division that found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime and minimum wage provisions.

"This company benefited by not paying employees all the wages they were entitled to receive," said Cynthia Watson, regional administrator for the Wage and Hour Division in the Southwest. "Car wash employees are among the most vulnerable employees in the workforce. The Labor Department remains committed to protecting the rights and wages of these workers and to leveling the playing field for employers who play by the rules. The back wages paid in this case should serve as a warning to other employers to ensure that they are paying their employees in compliance with the laws."

An investigation by the Wage and Hour Division's Dallas District Office found that the company's timekeeping system always rounded time worked in the employer's favor, resulting in paying employees for fewer hours than they had actually worked. Such shortages created minimum wage violations when employees' pay fell below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The employer also failed to pay employees overtime at time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek.

To read more of this article, click here.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

Acting Wage-Hour Administrator Leaves DOL

Source: Workplace FYI

Nancy Leppink, the Deputy Wage and Hour Administrator at the Department of Labor since 2009, and the Acting Wage and Hour Administrator since January 2011, left DOL on December 12, 2012.  Mary Beth Maxwell, formerly the Deputy Chief of Staff in the Wage and Hour Division, is serving as Acting Deputy Administrator of the Division and, in that capacity, will be running the agency until a new Administrator is in place.

The Wage and Hour Administrator is appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate.  There has been no confirmed Administrator during President Obama’s tenure.  There have been two nominees, but neither nominee was confirmed.

To read more, click here.

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

US Labor Department, Louisiana Workforce Commission sign agreement to reduce misclassification of employees as independent contractors

From the Wage and Hour Division News Release -

U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, and Louisiana Workforce Commission signed a memorandum of understanding Feb. 23 regarding the improper classification of employees as independent contractors. This partnership is the 13th of its kind for the U.S. Department of Labor.

"This memorandum of understanding helps us send a message: We're standing united to end the practice of misclassifying employees," said Leppink. "This is an important step toward making sure that the American dream is still available for employees and responsible employers alike."

"Initiatives like this are critical in leveling the playing field for businesses that play by the rules," Eysink said. "They're also vital for ensuring that eligible, hardworking men and women get the coverage and benefits they earn if they are injured on the job or lose their jobs through no fault of their own."

Memorandums of understanding with state government agencies arose as part of the U.S. Department of Labor's Misclassification Initiative, which was launched under the auspices of Vice President Biden's Middle Class Task Force with the goal of preventing, detecting and remedying employee misclassification. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Utah and Washington have signed similar agreements. More information is available on the U.S. Department of Labor's misclassification Web page at http://www.dol.gov/misclassification.

Read the full news release here

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.