FLSA Category Archives — Atlanta Employment Attorneys Blog Published by Atlanta, Georgia Employment Lawyers

Mootness, FLSA Lawsuits, and the Importance of Strategic Decision-Making in Resolving Your Case

March 25, 2025 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Fair Labor Standards Act litigation matters, like most civil lawsuits, involve many decisions, including strategic ones. A party may make some decisions, such as settling despite their case’s perceived strength, simply because strategic considerations dictate that it is wise. The importance of wise decision-making in your FLSA lawsuit is one of the many areas where having representation provided by an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer can provide invaluable benefits.

One example of this type of strategic decision-making involves certain lower-amount unpaid compensation cases. Sometimes, potential collateral costs—like paying the other side’s attorney’s fees—may be so substantial and the sum the employee seeks so comparatively small that those figures dictate tendering a full amount to the employee simply to avoid the risk of a major attorney’s fees expense.

A recent unpaid overtime case from Texas shows how an employer can use the mootness doctrine to its advantage in an FLSA case.

Electronic Signatures, Arbitration Agreements, and FLSA Lawsuits in Georgia

March 17, 2025 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Modern technology has created many advantages for employers and employees. Today, an employee and an employer can enter into an agreement even with the employee situated hundreds of miles from the employer’s nearest office. Proper electronic security is one thing that employers and employees alike should keep in mind when it comes to e-signatures and online onboarding. If a dispute arises later and the employee seeks to escape parts of her contract — such as an arbitration clause — the employer needs to be equipped with clear evidence showing that the signature occurred at the time of onboarding and could only have been entered by the employee. For questions about arbitration agreements and Fair Labor Standards Act cases, talk to a knowledgeable Atlanta wage and hour lawyer with experience handling this type of dispute.

A recent subminimum wage case involving pizza delivery drivers is a good example of the issues that may be involved in electronic agreement signature matters.

The drivers, O.R. and W.S., signed on to deliver food for a major Pizza Hut franchisee. In October 2023, they filed what they hoped would become a class action lawsuit against their employer, alleging that the franchisee illegally paid them subminimum wages.

Georgia Call Center Employees Seek Compensation for Time Spent Booting Up and Shutting Down Their Work Computers

February 14, 2025 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

New technologies affect all aspects of our work lives. Workers who once wrote their clock-in and clock-out times on paper cards eventually began “punching” in and out using automated machines. Later, they clocked in and out on special electronic timekeeping machines, and eventually, timekeeping became a computerized function. With each evolution, keeping an accurate record of employees’ time worked has presented challenges. However, at each step, the law places the onus on the employer to ensure that its timekeeping records are accurate and that all employees are paid for all the hours they worked. If you believe your employer has illegally underpaid you — or you are an employer concerned about unpaid hours compliance issues — an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer can provide you with essential information and advice.

Just to our south, in Macon, significant legal action is unfolding regarding timekeeping accuracy and unpaid hours in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The facts underlying the representatives’ claims are similar to those asserted in previous lawsuits in other jurisdictions. The representatives, who worked in the insurer’s call center in Macon, were required to log into a software application to take customer calls and log out of the application at the end of each shift. The application tracked the time each representative was logged in, and the employer paid representatives based on that timer.

Georgia’s Legislature Weighs Ending the Legal Payment of Subminimum Wages to Workers With Disabilities

February 7, 2025 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

A new bill pending in the Georgia Legislature would end a decades-old practice of employers legally paying some workers a wage well below the federal minimum. The legislation currently pending in the state senate is a reminder that, like all aspects of the law, wage and hour law is constantly evolving. To ensure compliance with the latest changes, you should speak to a knowledgeable Atlanta wage and hour lawyer with a fully up-to-date understanding of the law.

Georgia is one of 23 states that have banned subminimum wages or are considering legislation to end them. The legislation, Senate Bill 55, is called the “Dignity in Pay Act” and is a bipartisan initiative with three Democratic and four Republican sponsors.

The Georgia Council of Developmental Disabilities estimated that roughly 250 Georgians worked at jobs paying a subminimum wage. If the bill becomes law, employers currently paying subminimum wages would have to pay all workers an hourly rate at or above the minimum wage by 2027.

The U.S. Supreme Court Clarifies the Standard of Proof for FLSA Exemption Disputes

January 24, 2025 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

When you pursue or defend an unpaid overtime case under the Fair Labor Standards Act, there are a lot of variables and uncertainties. One thing that is certain, in the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, is the standard of proof that applies when the dispute centers around exempt-versus-nonexempt classifications. Even with the court deeming that the less-rigorous burden applied, employers should be aware that proving the applicability of an exemption still requires substantial evidence and deep knowledge of the law. Ensuring you have the right Atlanta wage and hour lawyer on your side can make all the difference in clearing this evidentiary hurdle.

The recent Supreme Court case began in a Maryland federal court. A group of sales representatives sued their employer for unpaid overtime. The employer contended that it owed the representatives no overtime because they were exempt employees. (Specifically, the employer deemed the representatives covered by the FLSA’s “outside salesman” exemption.)

The trial court ruled in favor of the employees, concluding that the employer failed to show “by clear and convincing evidence” that the exemption applied. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision.

Determining Overtime Compensation for Employees Who Work in Multiple Locations

January 17, 2025 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Some employees work at the same location, performing the same role every day. A lot of workers, however, do not. They may work for their employer in multiple locations and perform various roles. Employees in this latter category may be at an exceptionally high risk of suffering the harm of unpaid overtime compensation. When you work in different locations or perform different roles, it may be easier for your employer to fail to credit you for all your hours during a workweek and fail to pay overtime even though your total hours exceed 40. If you believe that your employer has illegally underpaid you in this (or any) manner, you owe it to yourself to contact an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer and discuss your circumstances.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recovered more than $145,000 in unpaid overtime compensation in a case that involved employees whose workweeks included duties at multiple locations.

After an investigation, the division concluded that the employer, which owned three Choice Hotels establishments in Helen, Georgia, engaged in misconduct that wrongfully denied overtime pay to nearly 100 of its housekeeping and front desk employees.

Default Judgments and FLSA Lawsuits in Federal Court

December 18, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

An employer will usually vigorously litigate a lawsuit alleging that it violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. Sometimes, though, the employer will not act. The deadline for filing passed with no answer… no other pleadings… nothing. When that happens in an unpaid overtime lawsuit, the worker may pursue something called a “default judgment.” Viewing this circumstance as the equivalent of an “uncontested layup” in basketball can be tempting. However, just as a basketball player does not automatically get two points when he/she has an uncontested layup opportunity, a worker does not automatically get a judgment in his/her favor solely because the employer defaulted. There are ways to mess up, even when the other side fails to contest. Having a highly skilled Atlanta wage-and-hour lawyer on your side is one way to avoid falling victim to these procedural hurdles.

For example, we can look at a recent unpaid overtime case involving a convenience store manager who was a non-exempt employee.

One of the keys to turning a motion for default judgment into an actual default judgment is making sure your court pleadings are complete and sufficiently specific. In an unpaid overtime case, that means establishing, among other things, personal jurisdiction, subject matter jurisdiction, and venue.

A Federal Appeals Court Has Taken Down the 80/20/30 Rule for Applying the Tip Credit

December 10, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Last month, an important federal court ruling wiped out a new U.S. Department of Labor Rule expanding salaried employees’ eligibility for overtime compensation by narrowing employers’ ability to apply certain exemptions. A few months earlier, a different federal court ruling from Texas also significantly impacted wage and hour law, but on a different set of employees. This ruling targeted a 2021 DOL rule regarding the tip credit. These rulings are crucial reminders that, especially under the current legal landscape, the rules and standards of wage and hour law are prone to change. With that in mind, you must work with a knowledgeable Atlanta wage and hour lawyer to ensure that your pay practices are compliant with (or taking advantage of) all the latest developments in the law.

The tip credit is the mechanism that allows employers to pay tipped workers a base hourly wage of as little as $2.13 per hour so long as the tipped worker’s base wage plus tips equals or exceeds $7.25 per hour. In 2021, the Labor Department established a rule saying that an employer could only apply the tip credit to workers if they spent 80% (or more) of their time doing tip-producing work (like serving tables in a restaurant, for example.)

The rule also established that these workers could spend no more than 20% of their time doing “directly supporting” work. (That latter category includes things like cleaning and setting tables or making coffee and tea.) An additional part of the rule said that workers could spend no more than 30 consecutive minutes doing this supporting work, or else the employer could not use the credit.

Employers’ Recordkeeping Obligations Under the FLSA and the Dangers of Not Making Court-Ordered Pay Record Disclosures

November 29, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Under the terms of the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers have numerous obligations. In addition to paying covered workers a minimum wage and time-and-a-half overtime compensation, employers also have an obligation to keep to an array of records related to their workers, the time they worked, and the compensation they received. Failing to keep these records can be very damaging to an employer. For answers to questions about the FLSA’s recordkeeping requirement, get advice from an experienced Atlanta wage-and-hour lawyer.

The FLSA recordkeeping troubles of a steel mill in South Alabama began after a group of its employees discovered what they believed to be a “series of wage-and-hour violations.” Those alleged transgressions included not paying the workers for all the hours they worked and shorting them on overtime compensation.

The case was a complicated matter, implicating things like multiple regular rates of pay that “changed based on the shift worked, the way time was rounded, the level of work, and the company’s monthly incentive plan.” (The employees’ overtime claims hinged, in part, on whether or not the employer assigned the correct regular rate to all the employees’ hours.)

When an Employee’s Travel is (or is Not) Compensable Under the FLSA

November 25, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Millions of Americans commute to and from work every day. For many others, getting to work is more complex, involving extended travel and multi-day (or weeks-long) stays away from home. While the Fair Labor Standards Act does not include daily commuting to and from home among the hours for which employers must compensate employees, the rules are different when overnight stays are involved. These employment arrangements may create situations where travel time must be compensated. If you have questions about travel time and the FLSA, talk to a knowledgeable Atlanta wage-and-hour lawyer to get the accurate answers you need.

Recently, a federal appeals court in the Midwestern United States delved into this issue of travel time and the FLSA.

The employer in the lawsuit was an Indiana-based equipment installation company. Working for the company involved driving to client sites far from home. Employees would remain at their sites from a few days to several weeks. Other than per diems and mileage reimbursements, the employer did not compensate its employees for their travel time.