Overview
The pay practices of employers in every industry are under constant scrutiny from both regulators and the plaintiffs’ bar. While the clients of our Wage and Hour practice group are scrupulous about paying their employees correctly, they have real concerns about how to accomplish that, given the maze of legal compliance issues they face.
We address those concerns in a practical, efficient manner, taking full advantage of our team of lawyers who are well versed in the nuances of wage and hour law.
Our clients rely on us to advise them on having their pay practices comply with federal, state, and local laws and to defend them when those practices are challenged. We help our clients with agency investigations. We defend them in class and collective action lawsuits. And we advise them in all wage and hour matters, including those that arise in the context of transactions.
Fending Off Class Actions
In any industry, disputes over wage and hour practices can threaten the very existence of companies targeted by them. The plaintiffs’ bar has grown increasingly aggressive at bringing these disputes—identifying jobs with vulnerable pay practices, then using them as the basis for massive class or collective actions. We see our clients through every stage of these cases, helping them quantify the risk, develop creative strategies, examine the business ramifications, and either defeat class certification or obtain dismissal of claims.
Understanding Compliance
Avoiding potentially ruinous class actions is at least as important as winning them. To that end, we help clients audit their own wage and hour practices to develop policies and practices that will stand up to court or agency scrutiny.
Dealing with Government Audits
To an employer, few events are more disconcerting than a government auditor appearing without warning and demanding to see records. We step in to help clients handle such audits and investigations at both the federal and state levels. We walk them through the process and represent them in front of federal and state agencies.
Free Wage and Hour App
One of the things our group is best known for is our free Wage & Hour Guide for Employers app. Introduced in 2012 and regularly updated, the app puts all wage and hour laws—federal and state—at the fingertips of employers.
Representative Experience
- Defeated class certification on claims that a national insurance company was the “joint employer” of its vendors’ property inspectors, did not pay for all time worked, denied them meal and rest periods, and provided inaccurate wage statements. After developing a creative strategy to show that the plaintiffs could not establish the elements for class certification, our team was able to reduce the case to just four plaintiffs and then was able to obtain an award of summary judgment as to those four individuals.
- Defeated class certification of claims brought against an ambulance industry client claiming it did not provide adequate meal and rest breaks to paramedics. Our team then convinced the court to strike Private Attorneys General Act representative claims as unmanageable and then persuaded the court of appeal to dismiss the plaintiff's appeal of those rulings.
- Defeated class certification of claims for unpaid wages, missed meal and rest periods, and inaccurate wage statements brought against a residential housing industry client. By showing that the plaintiff could not establish the elements of class certification, our team reduced the matter to a single-plaintiff case, which they then convinced the plaintiff to dismiss voluntarily.
- Obtained summary judgment in a class action brought against a temporary staffing company where the plaintiff claimed the temporary staffing company was vicariously liable for alleged wage and hour violations of its client. Our team’s creative arguments were upheld on appeal, establishing a precedent in California that alleged “joint employers” are not liable for each other’s alleged wage and hour violations.
- Convinced a federal judge to deny the plaintiff’s motion for class certification on claims that a staffing company did not timely pay final wages to more than 1,000 terminated employees in California.
- Brought a declaratory judgment action in federal court in Texas challenging a U.S. Department of Labor interpretation of its tip credit regulations, leading the agency to withdraw the challenged interpretation.
- Succeeded in getting the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to affirm a New York federal judge’s ruling that “black car” drivers in New York City were independent contractors, not employees.
- Obtained a denial of class certification in a lawsuit regarding the payment of prevailing wages and benefits to a proposed class of HVAC technicians who worked on various public works projects throughout New York State.
- Obtained summary judgment for an international financial services firm in Illinois in a lawsuit brought by a floor trader under state law alleging unpaid bonuses and commissions.
- Obtained summary judgment for a technology company in an overtime lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, where an ex-employee challenged his classification as exempt under the administrative exemption.
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Insights
Insights
- BlogsSpilling Secrets Podcast: Wizarding and the World of Trade Secrets2 minute read
- PublicationsMichigan Employers: Get Ready for Expanded Paid Sick Leave19 minute read
- Media CoverageNathaniel Glasser Quoted in “DOL's AI Guidance Puts Focus on Workers, Product Design”3 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Eighteen Epstein Becker Green Attorneys Named to the 2024 New York Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists
10 minute read - Media CoverageAllen Roberts Quoted in “Boeing Workers’ Deal Rejection Banks on Longshot Pension Return”5 minute read
- BlogsSecond Circuit Provides Lifeline to Employers Facing WTPA Claims in Federal Court5 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “Restaurant Groups Agree Tip Rule Decision Needs Update”2 minute read
- PublicationsMany New Laws for the Land of Many Lakes: What Minnesota Employers Need to Know19 minute read
- Media CoverageCourtney McFate, Rishi Puri, Carlie Bacon Featured in “Lane Powell Employment Trio Joins Epstein Becker Green in ...2 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsEpstein Becker Green Continues Expansion in Portland, Strengthens West Coast Foothold with New Employment Law-Focused ...4 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Advocates for Restaurant Groups in Fifth Circuit Tipped Wage Rule Dispute2 minute read
- Media CoverageCourtney McFate, Rishi Puri, Carlie Bacon Featured in “Epstein Becker Green Expands in Portland with Lane Powell Trio” ...2 minute read
- BlogsTime Is Money: A Quick Wage-Hour Tip on … FLSA Protections for Nursing Mothers6 minute read
- Media CoverageJeff Ruzal Quoted in “DOL Subminimum Wage Program Should Go, Experts Say”3 minute read
- BlogsVideo: DOL Authority Challenged - Key Rulings on Overtime and Tip Credit - Employment Law This Week3 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsLawdragon Again Names Adam S. Forman as a “Leading Corporate Employment Lawyer”2 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Featured in “A Solution-Oriented Approach”3 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Delivers Testimony on Rescinded Tip Rule to House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections4 minute read
- BlogsSpilling Secrets Podcast: After the Block - What’s Next for Employers and Non-Competes?2 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “5th Circuit Signs Off on DOL’s Overtime Salary Basis Test”3 minute read
- PublicationsOn Trend: New Pay Equity Laws Coming to Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Vermont in 202513 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “What Employers Need to Know Now That the 80/20 Tip Credit Rule Has Been Overturned”4 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “Punching In: DOL’s Summer of Enforcement Efforts on Tipped Wages”4 minute read
- Media Coverage
Paul DeCamp, Kathleen Barrett Featured in “Law360's Legal Lions of the Week”
1 minute read - Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “California Wage Theft Victims Miss Out on Millions in Collected Funds”2 minute read
- Media CoverageKathleen Barrett Quoted in “3 Tips for Navigating Tip Credit Rule's Demise”3 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “Fifth Circuit Strikes Down DOL Tip Credit Rule”4 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “Business Assault on DOL Judges Begins with Whistleblower Claims”3 minute read
- Publications#WorkforceWednesday: Courts Side with Employers – Tip Credit Rule and Non-Compete Ban Struck Down Nationwide3 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Featured in “Former DOL W&H Head Talks Shop on Agency Rulemaking”11 minute read
- BlogsFederal Appeals Court Vacates Department of Labor’s “80/20/30 Rule” Regarding Tipped Employees12 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “5th Circuit Tosses DOL’s Tip Credit Final Rule”5 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “5th Circ. Strikes Down DOL Tip Rule”3 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “Tipped Worker Downtime Wage Rule Vacated by Fifth Circuit”2 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “5 Wage Priorities in the Democrats' 2024 Platform”4 minute read
- BlogsTime Is Money: A Quick Wage-Hour Tip on … Regular Rate Exclusions9 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Adam S. Forman Named to the 2024 Michigan Super Lawyers List
7 minute read - BlogsVideo: State Legal Trends - Crucial Changes for Employers - Employment Law This Week4 minute read
- BlogsMichigan’s Supreme Court Has Spoken: Expanded Paid Sick Leave, Increased Minimum Wage and Phased Out Tip Credits ...7 minute read
- BlogsSpilling Secrets Podcast: What Is the Future of Non-Compete Agreements for Employers?2 minute read
- BlogsCalifornia Supreme Court Concludes That PAGA Plaintiffs Lack Standing to Intervene in Other PAGA Lawsuits3 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “Wage and Hour Issues to Watch the Rest of 2024”4 minute read
- BlogsTime Is Money: A Quick Wage-Hour Tip on … Offering a Compliant Payroll Debit Card Option to Employees8 minute read
- Media CoverageSports Brain—How Former Soccer Star Haley Morrison Feeds Her Competitive Instincts5 minute read
- BlogsThe Gig Continues: California Supreme Court Upholds Proposition 224 minute read
- BlogsDo the PAGA Amendments Create a Trap for California Employers? Yes. Are They Likely to Reduce the Number of PAGA Actions? No ...11 minute read
- BlogsSpilling Secrets Podcast: Can FTC’s Non-Compete Ban Survive Without Chevron Deference?2 minute read
- Media CoveragePaul DeCamp Quoted in “Federal Minimum Wage Hits 15 Years Without Movement”3 minute read
- BlogsPodcast: Down Goes Chevron: A 40-Year Precedent Overturned by the Supreme Court – Diagnosing Health Care2 minute read
- Media Coverage
Paul DeCamp Quoted in “What Employers Can Expect Following the End of Chevron Deference”
3 minute read