Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

Most employers know the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) requires employees to be paid time-and-one-half for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek unless an exemption applies.  But what some employers don’t realize is, for the most-commonly-used overtime exemptions to apply, employees must not only satisfy various “duties” tests, but they must also be paid on a “salary basis” at not less than $684 per week.  Payment on a salary basis means an employee regularly receives a predetermined amount of compensation each pay period on a weekly, or less frequent, basis.

A federal district court in Florida recently declined to conditionally certify a nationwide collective action brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) because the plaintiff did not show sufficient evidence that she was similarly situated to other restaurant managers who wanted to join.

During his most recent State of the Union Address on January 28, 2014, President Barack Obama stated that one of his top priorities in the coming year was to address what he described as “stagnant wages.”  More importantly, he warned Congress that if they did not take steps to tackle the issue soon, he was prepared to attempt to address the issue unilaterally through exercise of his executive power.