Green Savits Employment Law Blog

The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA” or the “Act”) governs the minimum wage and overtime compensation requirements for employees in almost all workplaces across the country. However, unsurprisingly, employers’ obligations under the FLSA are more complicated than simply paying their employees the set minimum wage (currently, $7.25/hour) and 1.5 times their regularly hourly rate for all hours worked over 40 hours per week. The many exemptions contained within the Act limit the number of employees who are entitled to these minimum wage and overtime guarantees.

For example, under the FLSA, employees “employed in a bona fide executive,...

In Part I of this article, I explained how employers can legally pay servers $2.13 per hour and then use servers’ tips in order to make up the difference between that rate and minimum wage. However, in order to take advantage of what amounts to legal wage theft, employers have to abide by certain requirements.

First, an employer must notify servers that it is taking the tip credit. This can be either oral or written. Second, once the employer takes a tip credit, it must make sure that the employee is at least making minimum wage. If employees are being paid $2.13 per hour and their tips do not bring them to minimum wage, then the...

The phrase “everyone makes mistakes” is often used to discourage people from dwelling on their errors. However, those whose mistakes resulted in criminal records are left with an unshakeable stigma that interferes with their ability to make a living and support themselves and their families. In an effort to provide job applicants with criminal records a fair chance in obtaining employment, “Ban the Box” legislation has been passed in over 100 states, cities and counties and President Obama directed that federal agencies follow suit. This year, both New Jersey and New York City have passed such legislation.

However, despite both...

There are a number of whistleblower laws that are intended to protect employees who report, object to or refuse to participate in conduct that may be either illegal, fraudulent or endangers the health and safety of individuals and the public.  Within the past month, there have been two significant legal developments that have interpreted New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Proctection Act ("CEPA") and the Dodd Frank law passed by Congress in 2010.

The first development involves the CEPA statute that protects New Jersey employees from employer retaliation against those employees who are whistleblowers.  During the past several years...