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Maine Celebrates Equal Pay Day with New Equal Pay Act Amendments [Update: The measure was signed into law by Governor Mills on April 12, 2019.] On April 2, 2019, the Maine Legislature celebrated Equal Pay Day by passing two significant amendments (“Amendments”) to the Maine Equal Pay Act. If, as expected, Governor Janet Mills signs the measure, certain salary history inquiries and employer policies prohibiting employee wage discussions will be deemed “evidence of discrimination.” While the Amendments do not directly “prohibit” such inquiries and policies, in effect, they operate as a ban... More
DOL Proposes New Rule to Determine Joint Employer Status under the FLSA In the first meaningful revision of its joint employer regulations in over 60 years, on Monday, April 1, 2019 the Department of Labor (“DOL”) proposed a new rule establishing a four-part test to determine whether a person or company will be deemed to be the joint employer of persons employed by another employer. Joint employer status confers joint and several liability with the primary employer and any other joint employers for all wages due to the employee under the Fair... More
New Jersey Health Insurance Mandate Will Effect In and Out-of-State Employers Our colleague Tzvia Feiertag at Epstein Becker Green has a post on the Health Employment and Labor Blog that will be of interest to our readers in the hospitality industry: “NJ Employers and Out-of-State Employers with NJ Residents Prepare: State Updates Website on Employer Reporting for New Jersey Health Insurance Mandate.” Following is an excerpt: As employers are wrapping up their reporting under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) for the 2018 tax year (filings of Forms 1094-B/C and 1095-C/B with the IRS... More
Predictive Scheduling is Becoming the New Normal for Hospitality and Retail Industry – Employment Law This Week Our colleagues Jeff Landes, Jeff Ruzal, and Adriana Kosovych are featured on Employment Law This Week – Predictive Scheduling Laws, the New Normal? – Deep Dive Episode speaking on predictive scheduling laws and the impact on business. Taking the guesswork out of scheduling for wage workers is an attractive proposition for regulators. Laws that require employers to publish employee work schedules a certain amount of time in advance so that employees (especially those in the hospitality and retail industries) can have greater... More
Department of Labor Issues Reminder for Documenting Plan Procedures for Designating Authorized Representatives Our colleague Sharon L. Lippett at Epstein Becker Green has a post on the Health Employment and Labor Blog that will be of interest to our readers in the hospitality industry: “A Reminder from the DOL: Document a Plan’s Procedures for Designating Authorized Representatives.” Following is an excerpt: While the Information Letter does not directly respond to the query from counsel to the Entity, the DOL’s response indicates that the Entity could be an authorized representative. The DOL states that, although a plan... More
New York Employers Must Meet Two Set of Training Requirements Our colleague Nancy Gunzenhauser Popper at Epstein Becker Green has a post on the Retail Labor and Employment Law Blog that will be of interest to our readers in the hospitality industry: “April Fools’ Joke? No—NYC Employers Really Have Two Sets of Training Requirements.” Following is an excerpt: Don’t forget – April 1 marks the beginning of a new set of sexual harassment training requirements in New York City. While the training requirement began across New York State on October 9, 2018 (and must be completed by October... More
EEO-1 Part 2 – Update This week, the U.S. District Court granted the EEOC’s request for a brief reprieve (until April 3) to provide information to federal contractors about what and when they will need to file the EEO-1 Part 2 pay data report. The judge told the EEOC to spell out how pay data will be collected, when it is due and how employers should format the data. The Department of Justice, arguing for EEOC, claimed EEOC’s systems were not prepared to accept the... More
Salary Level for Overtime Exemption Proposed to $35,308 Our colleague David M. Prager at Epstein Becker Green has a post on the Wage and Hour Defense Blog that will be of interest to our readers in the hospitality industry: “Overtime: DOL Proposes to Raise Salary Level for Overtime Exemption to $35,308.” Following is an excerpt: The U.S. Department of Labor has released a proposal to update the overtime rules under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Employers should be prepared to raise salaries to meet the minimum thresholds, pay overtime when appropriate, and... More
EEO-1 “Part 2” Pay Data Report Roars Back to Life In a stinging rebuke of the Trump Administration’s attempt to remove burdensome regulations on employers, Judge Tanya Chutkan, a District Court judge in the District of Columbia this week reinstated the EEO-1 “Part 2” wage data/hours worked reporting form for all employers who file annual EEO-1 demographic reports with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and the U.S. Department of Labor. (This includes all companies employing more than 100 people, or 50 people if they are a US federal contractor.) This... More
Restaurant Group Severs Relationship with Mario Batali, Highlighting Long-Lasting Impact of Sexual Misconduct Allegations in the Hospitality Industry On March 6, 2019, the 20-year business partnership between celebrity chef Mario Batali and the Bastianich family of restaurateurs, Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, was formally dissolved following allegations by several women more than a year ago that he sexually assaulted and harassed them at his restaurants years earlier. Tanya Bastianich Manueli and her brother Joe Bastianich have bought all of Mr. Batali’s shares in the restaurants. As a result, Mr. Batali has been fully divested and will no longer... More