News & Insights

There are many reasons an employee might have their wages garnished. There are also many corresponding pitfalls for employers in successfully navigating a wage garnishment and responding to a summons of garnishment. This is understandable when you consider the overlapping federal and state laws that apply to employee wage garnishments. For employers, improperly responding to...

by Emily Gaston. The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) recently published its finalized rule for determining whether a business qualifies as a “joint employer.” If you’re unfamiliar, a joint employer is a secondary business subject to liability under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The rule outlines the approved test for determining joint employment liability...

by Todd Stanton. In Georgia, employers must provide exiting employees with a Separation Notice when the employee leaves employment. This is because employment and earnings information is necessary to make unemployment benefit determinations and the employer’s potential “chargeability” for such benefits. Individual employees are provided with form DOL 800. This form (and other Separation Notices)...

In case you hadn’t heard, on November 22, 2016, a federal judge prohibited the U.S. Department of Labor’s new regulation from taking effect on December 1, 2016.  The regulations would have, but for the Court’s injunction, increased the salary threshold for exempt employees from $455 per week to $913 per week. The injunction applies in...

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Labor published a new rule that will increase the salary requirements for “exempt” employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The time for complying with the new rule is just around the corner – the regulation goes into effect on December 1, 2016 regardless of the pending new...

For employers who are required to file an annual EEO-1 report, beginning in March 2018, the EEOC will also require those employers to report various types of pay data on their employees. The new rule changes the scope of the data that must be reported, the timing of the data collection, and the reporting deadline....

If you are an American seeking to do business in Europe, or vice versa, it is useful to have an overview of the cultural and legal differences between the two continents to understand how these impact the respective work cultures.  As each state in the U.S. and each country in Europe has its own quirks,...

Manori de Silva is taking on the International Sector at Stanton Law. Qualified as an attorney in England (solicitor) and the United States, she uses her understanding of cultural differences to help European companies to do business in the United States. She also helps American companies navigate the complex web of worker protections in Europe. Click here to check out...

The work is piling up and you could really use an extra pair of hands around the office. But you’re managing labor costs. Even though the economy has improved, it’s a competitive world out there. We’re all doing more with less. An unpaid intern seems to be the answer. Talk about the best of all...

Affordable Care Act The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Fourth Circuit Court decision in King v. Burwell, holding that individuals who get their health insurance through the federal government exchange will be eligible for tax subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. The decision leaves employers in largely the same position they’ve faced since ACA’s passage,...

Last Thursday, President Obama announced his directive to the Department of Labor to begin the process of revising federal regulations to expand the number of Americans eligible for overtime under Fair Labor Standards Act. He specifically targeted the “white collar” exemptions from overtime, including the administrative, executive, and professional exemptions. Currently, employers paying certain employees...

Beginning January 2014, the IRS will begin enforcing guidance it published in a June 2012 ruling classifying automatic gratuities on restaurant checks as service charges and not tips. Many restaurants include automatic gratuities on checks for large parties or in the event of special promotions or discounts (Groupon or Scoutmob deals, for example) to ensure...

The most common problem I’ve encountered since opening up my practice is employers who are not compensating their employees correctly.  Unfortunately for these employers, wage and hour cases are big business for plaintiffs’ attorneys, and the Department of Labor loves making examples out of unsuspecting employers who are, in many cases, simply uninformed about the...