Category: Paychecks & Work
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Employee-chosen midday commutes can remain unpaid even when work happens before and after
Hybrid schedules can put a commute in the middle of a day that contains work on both sides. A new Labor Department opinion says that travel can remain unpaid when the employee voluntarily chooses the split, controls the arrangement and is fully off duty while moving between home and the office. The result protects flexibility,…
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Required client-scheduling calls can start a field worker’s paid day, Labor says
A field employee’s workday may begin before the first client appointment when the job requires real scheduling and coordination from home. In a new fact-specific opinion, the U.S. Department of Labor concluded that required client calls and related coordination were compensable work and could start the continuous paid day. The answer does not convert every…
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Dallas Barber will pay damages after rejecting a pregnant applicant who passed its skills test
A successful skills test should move a qualified job applicant closer to a hiring decision, not become irrelevant after an employer learns she is pregnant. Dallas Barber and Stylist College has agreed to pay monetary damages and provide other relief to settle a federal lawsuit over exactly that sequence. The government did not disclose the…
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Sutter Roseville will pay $200,000 after refusing a nurse’s disability accommodation
A disability can change which tasks or work locations remain possible without ending a person’s ability to work. Sutter Roseville Medical Center has agreed to provide $200,000 in back pay and compensatory damages to a former staff nurse after a federal investigation found the hospital refused to consider reassignment to an open position and terminated…
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D.C.’s minimum wage is now $18.40, and employers must cover any tip shortfall
For a worker paid at the District of Columbia’s wage floor, July changed the value of every hour on the timecard. The citywide minimum rose to $18.40, while the direct cash wage for tipped employees rose to $10.30. Tips can fill the gap, but the legal duty to guarantee the full minimum remains with the…
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Bouchon and Thomas Keller Restaurant Group will pay $2 million to settle an EEOC harassment case
A workplace case at a celebrated Las Vegas restaurant ended with a dollar amount large enough to command attention and a compliance plan designed to change what happens after a worker complains. Bouchon and Thomas Keller Restaurant Group agreed to pay $2 million to resolve a federal harassment and retaliation lawsuit. The settlement does not…
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Average hourly pay and consumer prices both rose 3.5% over the past year
Average hourly earnings rose 3.5 percent over the year to $37.64 while the CPI rose 3.5 percent over the same window. Long-term unemployment is up 286,000.
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Unclaimed back wages go to the Treasury after three years
The Labor Department holds recovered back wages for three years before sending them to the U.S. Treasury. Here is how the Workers Owed Wages search works and what it requires.
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Third-party apps send a 1099-K only above $20,000 and 200 payments, but your side income is taxable either way
A household clears out a garage over the summer, lists a couple dozen things on a resale app and collects a few thousand dollars. January comes and no tax form arrives in the mail. The natural conclusion is that the amount was too small for the Internal Revenue Service to bother with, and that the…
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$2.6 million will go to women an Alabama recycling plant refused to hire as laborers, federal investigators said
Somewhere in Pell City, Alabama, and the towns around it, are women who applied for laborer work at a recycling plant and never heard back. By the federal government’s account, some of them were turned away as long ago as 2006, and the pattern ran until late 2022. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says…
