Wage & Hour

  • August 11, 2025

    Split 8th Circ. Revives Minn. Suit Over Union Leave

    The Eighth Circuit on Monday revived a First Amendment challenge to a Minnesota school district policy that allows teachers to take paid leave to work for their union, saying the district spending public funds on benefits for teachers engaged in political actions gave residents standing to sue as taxpayers.

  • August 11, 2025

    Posner Accuser Wants Roberts To Pick Judges For Wage Case

    The pro se plaintiff seeking to revive wage claims against retired Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner has filed an opposed motion asking the circuit's chief judge to request U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts assign out-of-circuit judges to preside over the case, arguing the circuit judges cannot be impartial.

  • August 11, 2025

    Fisher Phillips Adds Back Kahana Feld Labor Atty In Calif.

    Fisher Phillips is expanding its West Coast team, announcing Monday a Kahana Feld LLP labor and employment ace is returning to the firm as a partner its Orange County office in Irvine, California.

  • August 08, 2025

    Truck Driver Seeks Class Cert. In Time Card Rounding Row

    A California federal court must grant class certification to truck drivers at a construction materials company that allegedly underpaid workers by rounding on time cards, a former employee argued, saying the workers did not receive accurate wage statements.

  • August 08, 2025

    NY Forecast: Judge Weighs NLRB Injunction Bid At Nonprofit

    This week, a New York federal judge will consider whether to order a homeless shelter operator to bargain with a Service Employees International Union affiliate over allegations that the nonprofit refused to bargain with the union and threatened workers over their union activity. Here, Law360 looks at this and other cases on the docket in New York.

  • August 08, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Review Collective Action Ruling In Wage Case

    The Ninth Circuit said Friday it won't weigh a panel's decision that Cracker Barrel servers from only the state where a wage suit originated should be kept in a collective action, and turned down the restaurant chain's bid to reevaluate the first step of the certification process.

  • August 08, 2025

    Papa John's No-Poach Deal Barely Clears Initial Hurdle

    A Kentucky federal judge expressed lingering concerns despite giving initial approval to a $5 million settlement for claims from Papa John's employees over its past use of no-poach provisions in its franchise agreements after rejecting a previous approval bid.

  • August 08, 2025

    Calif. Forecast: Amazon-NLRB Fight Heads To 9th Circ.

    In the coming week, attorneys should keep an eye out for Ninth Circuit oral arguments in Amazon's challenge to the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board's structure. Here's a look at that case and other labor and employment matters coming up in California.

  • August 08, 2025

    X Says Former Employee Was Fired For Misconduct

    A former X employee was fired after writing on Slack about a "kill command" that could have turned off the website, according to the social media company, telling a California federal court that his Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act suit can't stand.

  • August 08, 2025

    NY Firm Falcon Rappaport Adds Employment Partner

    New York business law firm Falcon Rappaport & Berkman LLP has hired an attorney from Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP as a partner in its labor and employment practice group, the firm announced.

  • August 08, 2025

    Black Officer's Lower Pay Ruled Not Based On Discrimination

    The pay disparity between a Black female corrections lieutenant and two white male lieutenants was rooted in civil service pay rules and job differences, not gender and race-based discrimination, an Alabama federal judge ruled.

  • August 07, 2025

    Connecticut Litigation Highlights In The 1st Half Of 2025

    Two separate royalty disputes — one $90 million, the other $4 million — involving two giants in the alcoholic beverages market are among the top corporate cases that crossed Connecticut court dockets in the first half of 2025.

  • August 07, 2025

    Worker Says Property Firm Fired Her Over Medical Diagnosis

    A property management firm has been sued in Georgia federal court by a former employee who alleged she was discriminated against and eventually fired after being diagnosed with ovarian fibroids requiring a hysterectomy and hernia repair.

  • August 07, 2025

    Healthcare Consulting Co. Agrees To Pay $16M In OT Dispute

    A healthcare consulting company agreed to pay $16 million in a lawsuit accusing it of misclassifying care coordinators as overtime-exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act, about 200 workers said in a settlement approval bid filed in New Mexico federal court Thursday.

  • August 07, 2025

    7th Circ.'s Collective Cert. Standard Strikes Balance, Attys Say

    A new framework the Seventh Circuit laid out for certifying collective actions in wage and hour litigation has attorneys for both employers and workers at first blush feeling relieved, as the panel majority put forward a flexible approach that gives lower courts discretion.

  • August 07, 2025

    Unpaid Lottery.com VP OT-Exempt Under FLSA, 5th Circ. Says

    A Texas federal court correctly found that a Lottery.com IT executive was a highly paid exempt employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Fifth Circuit ruled, rejecting the worker's arguments that he had lost his exempt status when he stopped getting paid.

  • August 07, 2025

    Mass. High Court Affirms $1M Pension Loss For OT Fraud

    The forfeiture of $1 million in pension and health benefits following a Massachusetts state trooper's conviction in an overtime fraud scheme is not so grossly disproportionate to the offense that it violates the state constitution's prohibition on excessive fines, Massachusetts' highest court concluded on Thursday.

  • August 07, 2025

    Gig Staffing Cos. Profit By Misclassifying Workers, Court Told

    A slew of staffing companies including Instawork misclassify the workers they hire as independent contractors, a nonprofit organization that advocates for workers' rights said in a suit removed to Ohio federal court, accusing the investors backing the companies of racketeering.

  • August 06, 2025

    NY Judge Confirms Tips Awards In Hotel, Union Arbitration

    A New York City hotel must fork over $60,000 in back pay to its food and beverage attendants after its bartenders decreased the attendants' share of tips nearly 15 years ago, a federal judge ruled, confirming a series of arbitration awards over the hotel's protests.

  • August 06, 2025

    Accounting Firm Must Face Ex-Credit Union CEO's Firing Suit

    The largest accounting firm in Connecticut, Whittlesey PC, must face the former CEO of Sound Federal Credit Union's claim that he was fired for following the firm's advice on when to calendar gains from a $1.2 million property sale, a Connecticut trial court judge has ruled.

  • August 06, 2025

    American Snags Win In Flight Attendant's Wage Suit In NY

    American Airlines' compensation method splitting flight attendants' pay in two didn't violate New York Labor Law's wage statement and late-payment requirements, a federal judge ruled, finding that a flight attendant didn't show the pay plan caused him harm.

  • August 06, 2025

    7th Circ. Adopts Flexible Standard For Collective Actions

    The Seventh Circuit in a discrimination case against Eli Lilly & Co. laid out a new standard for certifying collective actions, joining the Fifth and Sixth circuits in departing from a two-step analysis courts had used for decades but taking a more middle-of-the-road approach.

  • August 06, 2025

    Steakhouse Can't Shake Certified Class In Conn. Wage Suit

    A class of tipped servers accusing a steakhouse at the Foxwoods Resort Casino of unpaid wages will stay in place, a Connecticut state judge ruled, saying that the employer overplayed a court's earlier decision finding that the workers didn't perform nonservice tasks.

  • August 06, 2025

    LA Seeks To Nix Attys In Ex-Cop's Military Leave Bias Suit

    Attorneys for a former Los Angeles Police Department lieutenant improperly obtained and tried to use a privileged email between a city attorney and a current LAPD lieutenant in a military bias suit, the city said, urging a California federal court to disqualify them from the case.

  • August 05, 2025

    Judge Says Colo. Corrections Dept. Must Face OT Pay Claims

    A Colorado federal judge on Tuesday rejected the state Department of Corrections' bid for summary judgment in a proposed collective action accusing the agency of neglecting to pay criminal investigators for hours spent on call.

Expert Analysis

  • What To Know About Ill. Employment Law Changes

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    Illinois employers should review their policies in light of a number of recent changes to state employment law, including amendments to the state’s Human Rights Act and modifications to the Day and Temporary Labor Services Act, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.

  • Court Denial Of $335M UFC Deal Sets Bold Antitrust Precedent

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    A Nevada federal court’s recent refusal to accept a $335 million deal between Ultimate Fighting Championship and a group of former fighters to settle claims of anticompetitive conduct was a rare decision that risks the floodgates opening on established antitrust case law, says Mohit Pasricha at Lawrence Stephens.

  • Employers Should Not Neglect Paid Military Leave Compliance

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    An August decision from the Ninth Circuit and the settlement of a long-running class action, both examining paid leave requirements under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, are part of a nationwide trend that should prompt employers to review their military leave policies to avoid potential litigation and reputational damage, says Bradford Kelley at Littler.

  • Old Employment Law Principles Can Answer New AI Concerns

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    Despite growing legal and regulatory concerns about how artificial intelligence tools may affect employment decisions and worker rights, companies should take comfort in knowing that familiar principles of employment law and established compliance regimes can still largely address these new twists on old questions, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • How NJ Temp Equal Pay Survived A Constitutional Challenge

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    The Third Circuit recently gave the New Jersey Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights a new lease on life by systematically dismantling multiple theories of the act's unconstitutionality brought by staffing agencies hoping to delay their new equal pay and benefits obligations, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • NYC Wage Info Bill Highlights Rise In Pay Transparency Laws

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    With New York City the latest to mull requiring companies to annually report employee wage data, national employers should consider adapting their compliance practices to comply with increasingly common pay transparency and disclosure obligations at state and local levels, says Kelly Cardin at Littler Mendelson.

  • Calif. Ruling Clarifying Paystub Compliance Is Win For Cos.

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    In rare good news for California employers, the state Supreme Court recently clarified that workers couldn’t win extra penalties in wage and hour cases by claiming their employer intentionally violated state paystub law if the employer believed it had complied in good faith, say Drei Munar and Kirk Hornbeck at Hunton.

  • Water Cooler Talk: Immigration Insights From 'The Proposal'

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    Tracey Diamond and Evan Gibbs at Troutman Pepper chat with their colleague Robert Lee about how immigration challenges highlighted in the romantic comedy "The Proposal" — beyond a few farcical plot contrivances — relate to real-world visa processes and employer compliance.

  • How Calif. Justices' Prop 22 Ruling Affects The Gig Industry

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    The California Supreme Court's recent upholding of Proposition 22 clarifies that Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other companies in the gig industry can legally classify their drivers as independent contractors, but it falls short of concluding some important regulatory battles in the state, says Mark Spring at CDF Labor.

  • Eye On Compliance: NY's New Freelance Protection Law

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    New York's Freelance Isn't Free Act is set to take effect later this month, meaning employers must be proactive in ensuring compliance and take steps to mitigate risks, such as updating documentation and specifying correct worker classification, says Jonathan Meer at Wilson Elser.

  • Illinois BIPA Reform Offers Welcome Relief To Businesses

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    Illinois' recent amendment to its Biometric Information Privacy Act limits the number of violations and damages a plaintiff can claim — a crucial step in shielding businesses from unintended legal consequences, including litigation risk and compliance costs, say attorneys at Taft.

  • 2 Lessons From Calif. Overtime Wages Ruling

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    A California federal court's recent decision finding that Home Depot did not purposely dodge overtime laws sheds light on what constitutes a good faith dispute, and the extent to which employers have discretion to define employees' workdays, says Michael Luchsinger at Segal McCambridge.

  • How To Comply With Chicago's New Paid Leave Ordinance

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    Chicago's new Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance went into effect earlier this month, so employers subject to the new rules should update leave policies, train supervisors and deliver notice as they seek compliance, say Alison Crane and Sarah Gasperini at Jackson Lewis.