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Last week, a divided Sixth Circuit panel determined that "volunteer" firefighters who receive $15 per hour are employees for purposes of federal employment laws. Mendel v. City of Gibraltar , __ F3d __, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 16922 (6th Cir, Aug...

by John E. Thompson After more than a year of litigation (the filing of which we reported at the time), former unpaid Gawker Media interns will be permitted to send notices to other unpaid or allegedly underpaid interns to inform those potential plaintiffs...

Lurking among the numerous considerations raised by President Obama's "immigration accountability" initiative are the prospects that this action will result in more allegations by or on behalf of the affected individuals that they have not...

When you think of minor league baseball, you may draw on movies like Bull Durham or The Rookie ; long bus trips from stadium to stadium where teams play in front of small crowds for small pay. Well, apparently, the pay may be small enough to trigger...

Think back to when you took your SATs, many years ago—number-2 pencils, plastic school chairs and laminate-topped desks, florescent lights, nervous sweat, and, the bane of many a high-schooler, the analogies that comprise so much of the SAT’s...

by John E. Thompson There will be no extension of the original 60-day period for commenting on the U.S. Labor Department's proposals and requests relating to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's Section 13(a)(1) exemptions. U.S. Wage and...

Last Friday, I had the honor and privilege of presenting at the Philadelphia Association of Paralegals’ Education Conference . The class was essentially a primer on the basics of employment law, during which I emphasized both the types of claims...

by John E. Thompson In thinking-through and implementing their recovery plans in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, employers will want to review our August post summarizing a number of federal Fair Labor Standards Act issues that typically arise following...

Under the current version of the Fair Labor Standards Act (the "FLSA"), workers that provide companionship services, including home health care workers, are exempt from wage and overtime compensation requirements (the "companionship exemption"...

I’ve cautioning about the use of unpaid interns almost as long as this blog has been a blog ( here , here , and here , for example). Last week, the 11th Circuit, in Schumann v. Collier Anesthesia [pdf] , became the third federal appellate court...

by Keisha N. Jackson Riddle me (you) this: A salaried employee has worked for your company for just two weeks. He gets sick and misses one full day of work. He has accrued a small number of hours in his leave bank but not enough to cover the whole...

by Joseph U. Leonoro With the arrival of summer, many companies are hiring college and high school students to work as interns during summer break. Often, employers do not pay interns at all, or only pay them a stipend or other amount which is lower...

Remember the FLSA "pick-off" case? In Genesis Healthcare v. Symczyk, the Court held that if an FLSA collective action becomes moot as to the only plaintiff (before additional plaintiffs were added), then the entire claim becomes moot (and the...

For what today's case lacks in juicy facts, it makes up for in practical legal impact. In Dionne v. Floormasters Enterprises, Inc. , 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 15560 (11th Cir. July 28, 2011), the Eleventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of a wage and hour...

Work-related blogging is compensable time. Yesterday, I read the District of Hawaii opinion in Tagupa v. VIPdesk, Inc. . Tagupa worked for VIPdesk, a national concierge network, as part of its remote concierge team [subscribers can access an enhanced...