The requirement on wages and overtime are often confusing and misunderstood. Does minimum wage apply to commissioned employees? When is overtime due? What information must be proved to employees and what records must be kept? Do you have to pay for the time an employee is being trained or on breaks? Is overtime due if I pay an employee a piece rate or a fixed salary? And what about comp time? Make a mistake on one of these issues, and an employer could be liable for back wages, interest, attorney fees, and penalties.
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The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) launched a new pilot program to facilitate resolution overtime and minimum wage violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and without litigation. Referred to as the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program, it is a six-month pilot initiative that allows employers to conduct self-audits of their payroll practices and voluntarily report underpayments to WHD, who would supervise the back payments.
A year and a half ago, the industry was a buzz over revisions to the federal wage and hour regulations that require managers be paid overtime if they made less than $47,476 a year, more than doubling the prior $23,660 wage requirement. See Do You Pay Your Managers Overtime? You May Need to Under New Federal Regulation WFCA’s Premier Flooring Retailer (July/August 2016). A week before the rule was to be effective, a federal court enjoined the rule and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Of all of the traits that leaders possess, I find the least understood and cultivated is the power of their influence. As a leader, it is imperative that you be aware of how your voice resonates, your actions motivate, and your dreams instigate change that challenges others to break from the status quo and stretch their boundaries. You may not have asked for this responsibility, but it comes with the position. Embracing this can produce long term positive benefits for you and those fortunate enough to fall under your scope of influence.
Whether installing or fixing a hardwood floor, a subfloor or molding, whether making minor repairs, or attaching shoe molding, a nail gun is likely to be used. Do you require your installers to wear eye protection every time a nail gun is used? As a company in Alabama found out, it can be costly to ignore such protection. Specifically, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a serious citation against a framing contractor for allowing employees to use automatic nail guns without proper eye protection and fined the company $113,073.
Does your store offer discounted prices or sales claiming the price is “marked down” from the normal price? Do you advertise items are on sale at a percentage of the regular or standard price? Do you actually sell the items at the “normal” price? If not, you may face liability for deceptive pricing.
Success is often elusive. Many say they want it, but few ever feel that they achieve it. To simply pursue success is often an exercise in futility. The goal is too broad to understand the effort and resources required to attain it. Though I don't have a magic pill to guarantee your success, I am an avid student of those who have risen above the norm. In this blog I want to share with you a few things that those who have raised the bar have in common:
California’s Prop. 65 prohibits businesses from knowingly exposing California consumers to a chemical known to cause cancer or reproductive harm without first providing a notice of the danger. California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued new regulations on what warnings must be made and by whom. The new regulations will take effect on August 30, 2018. In the interim, businesses may choose to comply with either the current or new regulations.
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