The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave a recent reminder to employers when deciding whether to classify employees as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): Focus on what employees actually do, not labels, credentials, or compensation alone.
In the case of Bennink v. Cincinnati Bell Telephone Co., LLC, No. 26-3150 (6th
Employers sometimes are named in employment litigation or agency investigations for employees who never actually were on their payroll. All sorts of uncomfortable issues, such as confidentiality issues, insurance issues, and indemnity issues, can arise when this happens. The same problem can occur in a union organizing or collective bargaining
Unless and until there is binding federal law governing noncompetes in all 50 states, noncompete agreements will continue to be governed by state law. In recent years, state legislatures have been increasingly active in regulating noncompetes and imposing minimum requirements that must be met before a court even reaches the question of whether the specific
A recent opinion letter from the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (WHD), FLSA2026-5, offers a helpful reminder for employers managing exempt classifications — particularly in workplaces where employees may perform a mix of exempt and non-exempt work.
The key takeaway: An employee does not lose exempt status simply because they perform
On June 3, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a significant precedential decision in Secretary U. S. Department of Labor v. Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services LLC, No. 24-2842, 2026 WL 1582064 (3d Cir. June 3, 2026), narrowing the scope of wage-and-hour liability under the Fair Labor Standards Act
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division welcomed the new year by issuing six new opinion letters on January 5, 2026 — four regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and two regarding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). As background, opinion letters explain how the DOL applies federal employment laws
For those thinking that classifying workers as independent contractors is a cheaper way of doing business, beware. A California court just ordered a home healthcare business to pay $10 million in restitution and civil penalties for misclassifying its home care workers as independent contractors. The judgment in the case states that the company already was
Are home health and personal care workers eligible for overtime? That is a more complicated question than it first appears. In fact, it could be about to change again as certain providers of home health and personal care workers face a major shift as the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
Just this week, in Richards v. Eli Lily & Co., the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals became the third circuit to depart from the long-standing Lusardi standard for distributing notice to potential plaintiffs in collective actions. The Seventh Circuit adopted a new test that lower courts must now follow to determine whether notice should
The call or visit that no employer wants to receive: a Department of Labor representative asking to look at your payroll records. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) gives the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) the authority to seek the payment of unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime. In the past, at the