Posts by Paige Hoster Good
Sexual harassment claims on the rise … and so is EEOC enforcement
In the spring of 2018, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received its first budget increase in over eight years, with Congress approving approximately $16 million for the agency to focus on sexual harassment claims. In October of 2018, the EEOC released preliminary data on sexual harassment claims for 2018, which reflected an uptick in…
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DOL publishes proposed rule on new overtime laws
As discussed in our EmployerLINC Alert earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage & Hour Division announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to increase the salary threshold employees must meet in order to be exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Today, the DOL officially published its proposed rule regarding…
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US Supreme Court upholds arbitration agreements with class action waivers
Yesterday, Justice Gorsuch for the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion in Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis, together with two companion cases, upholding the use of class and collective action waivers in arbitration agreements by employers. At issue in this trio of Supreme Court cases was whether employees and employers should be allowed to…
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Employers prevail in auto service advisors FLSA exemption decision
While the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) generally requires employers to pay its employees overtime for any hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek, the law also provides that certain types of employees are exempt from – that is, ineligible for – overtime pay. Up until now, courts across the country applied the…
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Confidential sexual harassment settlement payments no longer tax‑deductible
In a workplace era that may soon be referred to as “Pre-Weinstein,” employers not only could quietly settle sexual harassment claims by including a nondisclosure agreement that virtually assured the matter would be kept confidential and out of the public spotlight, but they could also deduct the settlement payment and attorney’s fees as a business…
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Work schedule conflict leads to religious accommodation lawsuit
A recent decision by the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals (the jurisdiction that covers Oklahoma federal courts) provides another reminder that religious accommodations come in all shapes and sizes, and that proving “undue hardship” is often a high hurdle for employers. While a number of religious discrimination lawsuits in recent years have focused on…
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States take pay disparity laws a step further by banning pay history inquiries
Many states already have laws aimed at closing the wage gap. Whether they are couched as pay disparity, pay equity, equal pay, or pay transparency laws, the goal is the same – equal pay to women for equal work. Some states have taken pay equity laws a step further by prohibiting employers from inquiring about…
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Rulemaking revisited: Employer input sought on new overtime regs
As we previously reported, the U.S. Department of Labor failed to challenge a federal district court’s blocking of the new overtime rule that was set to go into effect last December and, instead, signaled its intent to revisit the Fair Labor Standards Act’s ‘white collar’ exemption and salary thresholds anew. Last week, the U.S. Department of…
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Court finds ethical considerations, not same-sex relationship, determined demotion decision
The issue of pretext recently played out in a sex discrimination case in which the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals had to decide whether an employer’s reasons for demoting an employee were legitimate or just a ruse to cover up discrimination. Doctor’s romantic relationship leads to series of complaints Dr. Tawny Hiatt worked at a…
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U.S. House passes bill to substitute overtime pay with time off
On May 2, 2017, the Executive Office of the President issued a statement supporting a new House bill, H.R. 1180. H.R. 1180, the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017, proposes to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) to allow private-sector employers to give employees the choice to receive paid time off instead of overtime…
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