Blogs

Employment Law

Montgomery County and D.C. Minimum Wage Rates Increase

Montgomery County, Maryland Effective July 1, 2018, the minimum wage payable by employers in Montgomery County, Maryland, increased to $12.25 per hour, from the previous minimum wage rate of $11.50 per hour for large employers (those with 51 or more employees in the county). For mid-size employers (11 and 50 employees) and small employers (10…

July 6, 2018

Business and Financial Services

DOL Explains When Employees Must Be Paid for Travel Time

Eighty years ago the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) established federal minimum wage and overtime requirements for hourly employees. The law’s basic tenet seems straightforward: Employers must pay employees for their “work.” Yet for many employers, compliance with the FLSA on issues such as employee travel time continues to be problematic because the FLSA does not really explain when an employee is at “work.” The FLSA and Portal-to-Portal Act The Supreme Court initially explained that “work”…

July 6, 2018

Employment Law

5 Steps to Limit Liability for Sexual Harassment at Work

A previous blog post discussed sexual harassment in the workplace in the age of the #MeToo Movement. This post discusses steps that an employer can take to avoid liability for harassment, or at least minimize legal exposure. Have a Sexual Harassment Policy An employer should have a clearly articulated sexual harassment policy that: expressly prohibits…

March 16, 2018

Employment Law

DOL Adopts More Flexible Test to Determine When Interns Must Be Paid Under The Fair Labor Standards Act

Just as many employers are heading into the 2018 summer-intern recruitment season, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced that it has abandoned the rigid six-factor test in use since 2010 to determine whether interns of for-profit entities must be treated as paid employees. Under the DOL’s previous six-factor test, an intern was deemed to…

February 13, 2018

Employment Law

Maryland Paid Sick Leave Law Goes Into Effect on February 11, 2018

On January 12, 2018, Maryland became the latest state to require employers to provide paid sick leave to employees, when the Maryland General Assembly overrode Governor Larry Hogan’s veto of the bill last year. The bill – known as the Healthy Working Families Act – will become law on February 11, 2018, unless the General…

January 26, 2018

Employment Law

What Is Sexual Harassment in the Workplace?

Recently, the #MeToo movement has cast a spotlight on sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. Despite the media focus on sexual harassment, there still seems to be a fair amount of confusion about what is and is not sexual harassment. Simply put, sexual harassment is harassment based on an individual’s sex. For legal purposes,…

January 19, 2018

Employment Law

California Joins States Banning Employers from Asking Job Applicants about Salary History

In October 2017, California became the latest in a growing list of states and localities to ban employers from asking job applicants about their salary histories, a list that includes: Massachusetts, Delaware, Oregon, Puerto Rico, San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York City. Similar legislation is currently under consideration in other states, including: Virginia, Maryland, New…

December 4, 2017

Employment Law

OFCCP Announces Minimum Wage Increase and Hurricane Relief Measures for Federal Contractors

Minimum Wage Rate Increases Last week, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced an increase in the minimum wage applicable to federal contractors for contracts that are covered by Executive Order 13658. Effective January 1, 2018, the new hourly minimum wage rate will be $10.35, up from the current hourly rate of $10.20.…

September 25, 2017

Employment Law

You Need What?: When Does Your Employee’s Request for More Leave Become Unreasonable Under the ADA?

Employee requests for extended leave as a reasonable accommodation of a disability continue to be among the most difficult for employers to evaluate under Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). Consider this all too familiar scenario for many employers: Your employee is nearing exhaustion of all available forms of sick leave, including Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) leave and paid time off, and informs you that he is unable to return to work right now, requires additional medical…

August 4, 2017

Employment Law

New I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification Form Announced by USCIS

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) announced on July 17, 2017 that it has released a newly revised Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification Form. Federal law requires all employers to complete a Form I-9 for each individual hired for employment in the United States. Employers can begin using the revised version of the Form…

July 24, 2017