by Joseph Godwin
Happy New Year! I hope the holiday season was a joy-filled one with plenty of time to spend with family and friends ― the most important people in our lives.
Now it’s January and time for making ― and implementing ― those dreaded annual “resolutions.” The economy, while slowly improving, remains weak [...]

Employee pay and privacy are two of the most basic, yet potentially problematic issues for HR professionals, but guidance is available. Recently, questions on those two issues were put to a group of attorneys.
To track or not to track
The need to keep track of nonexempt employees’ work hours goes without saying, but is it a [...]

by Jennifer L. Anderson
Ebenezer Scrooge is the most infamous of employers — overworking and underpaying his employees, denying their vacation requests, and spreading holiday misery rather than holiday cheer. Fortunately, A Christmas Carol is fiction, and times have changed. These days, most of you decorate your offices, accommodate employees’ vacation requests, provide standard holidays off [...]

by Craig Olivo
Q: We recently hired a temporary employee for a position that is classified as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). With the holidays quickly approaching, will we be required to pay the temporary employee for the holidays observed by our company?
A: The FLSA doesn’t require payment for time that [...]

Employees go on vacation, but business doesn’t stop. So sometimes workers are asked to put in time when they’re expecting to be kicking back at the beach.
Working from home is a popular arrangement, but what are the workers’ compensation implications when an employee is injured in a home office?

by Craig L. Olivo
Q: An exempt employee was out for a week. He had eight hours of accrued sick time, which he used before coming in and working two unauthorized hours at the end of the week. Are we required to pay him for the whole week?

Unlimited vacation is a growing trend that may be a good way for organizations to provide an incentive or bonus to employees to reward them for good work without increasing salaries or providing bonuses or other kinds of incentives. The concept of unlimited vacation is very simple: Employees can take vacation, personal, and sick time [...]

by Kara E. Shea
I’ve been working with several clients lately on Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) compliance issues — specifically, on exemption classification audits. During an audit, I review all the jobs an employer has deemed exempt from overtime under the FLSA and try to decide whether the positions have been correctly classified. It’s a [...]

by Gary S. Fealk
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), certain employees may be exempt from overtime pay.

An enthusiastic and energetic individual approaches you with a proposal to volunteer his time to gain valuable experience in your industry. “After all,” reasons the prospective volunteer, “how can I get my first job if I have no experience in the field of my choice?” Sounds like a win-win situation, doesn’t it?
Like many win-win situations [...]