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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.

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Many variables may influence the eventual outcome when you decide to pursue (or need to defend) a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) retaliation case. One that can sometimes be overlooked is where the case gets litigated. As a recent FMLA retaliation case from Oklahoma illustrates, the law is not always identical across all the federal circuits, creating variations that can make the difference between a dismissal and a case litigated all the way to trial. If you have questions about your matter (or potential case,) be sure to speak with a knowledgeable Atlanta FMLA retaliation lawyer.

Supervisor liability in an FMLA retaliation lawsuit is one of those issues where the venue of the case can make a huge difference.

Take, for example, a dispute between an IT worker at a public university, M.W.D., and the institution’s board of regents. The employee’s complaint alleged that the university fired her for taking FMLA leave, but the school contended it fired the woman for falsifying her absence reports.

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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.

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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.

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In 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) published a fact sheet regarding certain protections that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) affords workers who take covered leave. One of the keys is that the FMLA “provides job-protected leave from work.” That protection means not simply that the employee has a job waiting when they resume work but that they return their job (or an equivalent.) Whether you are an employee taking FMLA leave or an employer addressing FMLA issues, it pays to be mindful of these protections and, if you have questions or concerns, to speak to an experienced Atlanta FMLA leave lawyer.

Early last month, a customer service representative sued her employer for violating the FMLA. Specifically, the representative’s FMLA interference case alleged that her employer did not comply with the law’s “job-protected” aspects.

According to the lawsuit, the representative went through the proper FMLA process and obtained approval for a leave spanning several weeks in the fall of 2024, during which time she received treatment for RSV.

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Today, relationships are more complex than ever — including familial interactions and duties. An adult incapable of caring for herself may rely on a niece/nephew, sibling, cousin, or other non-parental relative to meet all her care needs. When that happens, the caregiver may need periods away from work. Workers and employers alike should recognize that, depending on the exact details of the relationship and the caregiving duties, that caregiver relative may be entitled to leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Whether you are a worker or an employer, if you have a question about the extent of FMLA coverage, you owe it to yourself to seek answers from a knowledgeable Atlanta FMLA leave lawyer.

An FMLA interference and retaliation case playing out to our north highlights the issue of “in loco parentis” relationships and FMLA coverage.

The employee in the case, C.C., was a finance manager at an automobile dealership in Ohio. She was also the primary caretaker of a sister battling terminal cancer. In June 2019, the manager used the last of her paid time off (PTO) to attend to her sister, who lived in Kentucky.

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As this blog discussed last week, most employers will vigorously litigate a lawsuit where an employee alleges a Fair Labor Standards Act violation. In the rare situations where the employer does not, something called a “default judgment” may be available to the worker. Even though you are not litigating against an actively participating defense, that does not mean success is automatic. You must clear challenging hurdles, which is why retaining a highly skilled Atlanta wage-and-hour lawyer is vital to getting the compensation you deserve.

Last week, we covered jurisdiction and venue issues in the case of a convenience store manager seeking payment for unpaid overtime. Establishing those, which the manager did, is not the only thing you must demonstrate for a judge to grant you a default judgment. You must also demonstrate several more elements specific to FLSA law. Specifically, you must show that you and the employer had an employee-employer relationship and are “covered” by the FLSA.

The woman’s allegation laid out employment as a non-exempt hourly employee at the convenience store from March 2021 to August 2022. Those assertions satisfied the court that the manager had pled an employee-employer relationship.

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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