Two administrative agencies within the federal government have been busy lately publishing new rules that govern important aspects of employers’ relationships with their employees. Read more below for further updates.
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has rolled out its long-awaited update to the
A few weeks ago, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced a bill to implement a 32-hour workweek. While such a law is a long way from becoming a reality, it does raise interesting questions concerning exactly what a 32-hour workweek would look like, especially in California.
Before engaging in this thought experiment one thing should be
Senate Bill 999, designed to align Paid Leave Oregon (PLO) with the Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA), passed the Oregon Legislature on June 1, 2023, and is expected to be signed by Governor Kotek shortly. The bill makes the following changes:
Rolling Forward Leave Year: Effective July 1, 2024, employers must use a “rolling
In a recent decision titled Buero v. Amazon.com Services, Inc., 370 Or. 502 (2022), the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that Oregon’s wage and hour law uses the same definition of “work time” as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The Buero decision resolves what had been a hotly contested legal issue for many years and clarifies that Oregon employers (most of which are subject to Oregon law and the FLSA) satisfy their legal obligation to calculate employees’ compensable time using the same legal standard for both sets of laws. Continue Reading Oregon Supreme Court Rules That Oregon Law Follows Federal Definition of “Work Time.”
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Oregon legislature amended the definition of “compensation” in the Oregon Equal Pay Act to temporarily exempt hiring/signing and retention bonuses from the limitations imposed by the Act. The temporary exemption, however, expires on September 28, 2022.Continue Reading Oregon Pay Equity Update: The Status of Hiring Bonuses
Oregon employers that require arbitration for employment-related disputes recently received some good news from the Oregon Supreme Court. In Gist v. ZoAn Management, Inc., the Court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that his arbitration agreement was unenforceable because it limited the arbitrator’s authority to award him relief. Instead, the Court ruled that the arbitration
On May 23, 2022, the California Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated ruling in Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services and decided two critical questions: first, whether an employee is entitled to “waiting time penalties” for unpaid premium pay, and second, whether employers are required to report premium pay on their employees’ wage statements.
As all
In Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, LLC, the California Supreme Court determined that the phrases “regular rate of compensation” and “regular rate of pay” are synonymous for the purposes of California Labor Code section 226.7(c) and the California Industrial Wage Orders. With this seemingly innocuous ruling, however, the Supreme Court has handed a potentially
It’s that time of year to prepare for minimum wage increases and update workplace posters. Beginning July 1, minimum wage rates throughout Oregon increase, to $14.00 for Portland Metro, $12.00 for Nonurban Counties, and $12.75 as Standard. (See here for descriptions of the areas in each category.) BOLI’s 2021-2022 Commonly Required Postings in Oregon
It’s common knowledge that an employee’s overtime rate is “time and a half” the regular rate of pay. But that truism begs the question: what exactly is the regular rate of pay? Earlier this week, the Ninth Circuit analyzed whether the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) required a company to include per diem payments that