The Akerman Angle Damien DeLaney and Jeff Kimmel

In Episode 9, Jeff Kimmel and Damien DeLaney discuss recent developments in the courts on agreements to arbitrate employment disputes, what it all means in the world of wage and hour litigation, and what employers should keep in mind when deciding whether to adopt an arbitration agreement.

In episode 8, Damien DeLaney and Jeff Kimmel, Co-Chairs of Akerman’s Wage and Hour Practice discuss the Federal DOL’s recent Notice of Proposed Rule Making proposing regarding federal overtime pay obligations. Jeff and Damien discuss the details of the proposed rule, the potential effects of the rule on employers, and what employers should do to prepare.

In episode 7, Jeff Kimmel and Damien DeLaney discussed pay transparency laws and trends before a live audience at Akerman’s Labor & Employment Summit in Santa Monica, California. Pay transparency has become a catch-all term for a variety of legal requirements that states and local governments have imposed on employers in an effort to reduce or eliminate inequities in compensation among employees doing similar jobs, which extend from requiring employers to report pay data to government agencies to requiring employers to fully post salary ranges when advertising positions or upon inquiry. Jeff and Damien break down the trends in state and local pay transparency laws, as well as bans on salary history inquiries; the effects of those laws on employees and employers; best practices for how employers can comply; and they take on questions from the audience.

Damien DeLaney and Jeff Kimmel, Co-Chairs of Akerman’s Wage and Hour Practice, have a discussion with Genaira Tyce, a partner in Akerman’s Traditional Labor Law Practice, about the increasing overlap between wage and hour laws and traditional labor law. The NLRB has been expanding its interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act to include claims that previously had been thought of as under the domain of wage an hour law. In addition, the NLRB and the DOL have entered into a memorandum of understanding to foster cooperation between the two agencies in order to increase interagency referrals of potential violations. In this episode, Genaira explains how this affects all employers, including non-union businesses, what they should be aware of, and what they should do to prepare for this new aggressive approach by the NLRB.

Damien DeLaney and Jeff Kimmel, Co-Chairs of Akerman’s Wage and Hour Practice discuss new laws and court cases that may have an impact on what employers need to do to comply with wage and hour laws in 2023. In this episode, Jeff and Damien discuss expected challenges to new rules put into effect by the Biden Administration, including the test for classification of workers as independent contractors, the new 80/20 rule to determine if workers can be paid the tip credit minimum wage, a new wave of court challenges how collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act are administered by the courts, and court challenges to certain regulatory restrictions on use of the “white collar” exemptions to FLSA overtime requirements.

Damien DeLaney and Jeff Kimmel, Co-Chairs of Akerman’s Wage and Hour Practice, discuss the Department of Labor’s proposed rule for determining if a worker is an independent contractor that was published for comment on October 13, 2022.