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It's new law season in CA. Over the weekend, Gov. Newsom signed an important new law related to workplace retaliation. SB 497 strengthens longstanding retaliation provisions under Labor Code 98.6 by creating a presumption that employers are illegally retaliating if they take certain disciplinary actions against a worker who in the prior 90 days has made a wage claim or a complaint about unequal pay. Employers must rebut the retaliation assumption by showing that there is a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason for the employee discipline. As a result, I believe it will be much more difficult to seek early dismissal of retaliation claims related to wage/hour or equal pay violations. In practical terms, the legislation should put HR and business leaders on notice to: (1) train supervisors and managers on wage/hour and equal pay obligations; (2) promptly respond to and investigate any wage/hour complaint, including equal pay claims; and (3) audit payroll processes and compensation practices for potential violations. #newlaw #californialaw #humanresources #workersrights #sb497

DC Employers: Pay Transparency is coming to the District. On January 12, 2024, Mayor Bowser signed the Wage Transparency Omnibus Amendment Act of 2023. The Act is subject to a 30-day Congressional Review period and most believe it will pass this review, becoming effective on June 30, 2024. The Act applies to employers with one or more employees in the District and exempts federal and DC government employees. What's in the Act? ♦ Disclosure of minimum and maximum salary/hourly rate range for all job listings and advertised position descriptions. ♦ Disclosure of potential health care benefits to applicants before the first interview. ♦ Prohibition on requiring wage history or screening applicants based on wage history. ♦ Posting requirement advising employees of their rights under the Act. There are still some open questions on the details of the Act, such as whether it applies to purely internal communications about jobs, transfer and promotions and the detail required of health benefit disclosures. Hopefully additional guidance will be rolled out to assist employers with compliance. Employers would be well-advised to start preparing for this law by reviewing pay practices and speaking to their employment counsel for best practices. We are happy to help you here at Clark Hill Law Labor & Employment with any compliance related concerns. #PayTransparency #PayEquity #DCEmploymentCompliance

As municipalities and states continue to implement pay transparency laws, Clark Hill Law's Vanessa Kelly shares an update about a potential new pay transparency law that will impact employers with employees in DC. #keepingcurrent #hrstrategies #hrcompliance #paytransparency

You’re focused on growing your business – as you should be. The last thing you want is for a government agency, whether it be Federal, State, or Local, to knock you back with an audit, a crippling fine, or even worse. In today’s world, it’s easier than ever (just a call or click!) for a disgruntled employee or former employee or competitor to alert agencies to what they believe is unlawful behavior in your workplace. Last year, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) answered more than 913,000 calls from employees asking if their rights were violated. (The WHD provides assistance in over 200 languages.) The WHD recovered over $100,000,000 from businesses who mistakenly or maliciously failed to properly pay their workers. But paying your workers the correct wages and following all the laws isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. That’s because employment laws are constantly changing. https://lnkd.in/g4W5wbxY

It's #TipTuesday! Betty Graumlich provides this week's tip reminding employers to evaluate how the DOL's new compensation regulation will impact their workforce and current wage and hour practices: The Department of Labor just announced that, effective July 1, 2024, the minimum salary threshold for employees classified as “exempt” under the “white collar” exemptions will increase to $844 per week ($43,888 annualized). For highly compensated employees, minimum compensation threshold will increase to $132,964 per year, where at least $844 per week must be paid on a salary or fee basis. Employers should follow any legal developments with respect to the new regulation. If the regulation goes into effect as announced, employers will need to evaluate how the new thresholds will affect employees currently classified as exempt. #employmentlaw #DOL #wageandhour #compensation

In just a week, a final rule from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is set to go into effect. Assuming it takes effect as scheduled, it will make the independent contractor standard more difficult to meet. This article shares practical advice for employers. 🔗 Read it here: https://bit.ly/4bXGFIP #FLSA #employmentlaw #independentcontractors

The July 1 effective date for the Department of Labor’s Final Rule, which raises the minimum salary level requirement for exempt white-collar employees, is fast approaching. What legal challenges could affect this deadline? Currently, three major lawsuits have been filed, challenging the DOL’s statutory authority to raise the minimum salary level for exempt workers or to implement automatic increases. In this Stites & Harbison Client Alert, author Shannon Hamilton provides a status update and more details on these lawsuits and their potential impact on the Final Rule. Click below to learn more: https://lnkd.in/eN3texy6 #FLSA #laborlaw #compliance

🚨 Did you know there is really only one US law that tells you HOW MUCH you have to pay a non-government contractor (e.g. most employees in the US)? It’s the State and Federal minimum wage law. Every other law governing pay is to (in my professional, not-a-lawyer opinion): 🚫🤝 Prevent exploitation (Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Equal Pay Act of 1963) ⚖️📊 Prevent discriminatory pay practices (Equal Pay Act of 1963, Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)) This means that as long as every person in your company is classified as exempt based on their job duties, you can choose to pay them all $40,000 (above the FLSA exempt salary of $35,568) and you’d likely be compliant with the law. This includes software engineers, lawyers, Chief Executive Officers – there is no law that says how much you MUST pay them. The differences in pay for roles is driven mostly by market forces, experience levels, and internal pay equity. Which means every other tripwire legally for compensation professionals comes from HOW and WHY you pay someone differently from the other. This complexity in compensation decisions underscores why Systems of Records for compensation are so crucial. They help you track each pay decision and maintain compliance with legal and internal standards. That’s why we created Pequity — to streamline this essential aspect of business management. #HR #HumanResources #Compensation #PayTransparency #Pequity #FairPay #LaborLaws #BusinessManagement #HRCompliance #CompTech #PayEquity #Pay #Technology #Talent #Comp #Talentmanagement #CompensationStrategy #Strategy

Never a dull moment as an employment lawyer. Earlier today, the Federal government introduced its third tranche of IR reforms into parliament in the form of the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 (coming in at 284 pages and with a 521 page explanatory memorandum). The Closing Loopholes Bill, if passed, will amend the Fair Work Act 2009 to introduce some of Labor’s remaining pre-election promises and other changes discussed at the Jobs and Skills Summit held last year.  The key reforms proposed by the Bill include: 1. a new definition of ‘casual employee’ and a new employee choice pathway for eligible employees to change to permanent employment; 2. protections to stop enterprise agreements from being undercut by the use of labour hire workers who are being paid less than relevant minimum rates – the same job, same pay principle; 3. increased maximum penalties for underpayments and a new criminal offence for wage theft; 4. new powers for the Fair Work Commission to set fair minimum standards for ‘employee-like’ workers working in the gig economy and new powers for those workers to contest unfair deactivations; 5. new powers for the Commission to deal with disputes brought by independent contractors about unfair terms in services contracts; and 6. a new offence of industrial manslaughter in the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth). Stay tuned for our summary of all of those changes to be published tomorrow.  Reach out to our employment team to discuss how those changes may affect your business. Andrew Gray Angela Weber Ruth Rosedale Annamarie Rooding Murray Kellock Philip Willox #employmentlaw #closingtheloop

Simplifying industrial instruments is a good thing. It assists employers understand and comply with their obligations, and also means employees are more likely to be paid correctly.   As I’ve discussed in this opinion piece in The Australian Financial Review today, our legal framework makes this an extraordinarily difficult objective for many employers to achieve, and tends to entrench unnecessarily complex historical arrangements. In the main, recent reforms exacerbate the problem - particularly the near impossibility of terminating expired enterprise agreements.   The intractable bargaining framework may however have a silver lining for some employers, which must be factored into the early formulation of a comprehensive bargaining strategy. #employeerelations #employmentlaw #industrialrelations https://lnkd.in/gPMyxr8M