After a lengthy and contentious rulemaking process, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) published its final rule revising its tipped-employee regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) last week. The new rules take effect 60 days from their publication in the Federal Register, which will occur shortly.  Here is a summary of the new rules’ most critical provisions:

Tip Credit Provisions. Several provisions of the new rules address the FLSA’s tip credit provision, which allows employers to pay employees a base wage that is less than the federal minimum so long as the sum of employees’ cash wages and retained tips exceed the required threshold.  For example, the rules state that employers that take the FLSA tip credit may not include back-of-the-house employees in their tip pools and address the common scenario in which an employee works in dual jobs (one tip-qualifying, the other non-tip-qualifying) for the same employer.  Oregon and Washington do not allow a tip credit against employers’ minimum wage obligations, so these aspects of the new rules are of limited use for Oregon and Washington employers.
Continue Reading Department of Labor Publishes Final Rule Regarding Tip Pools and Tip Credits

The following is an adaptation by my colleague Tony DeCristoforo of a post by Bryan Hawkins, Kirk Maag and Adam Belzberg that originally appeared on Stoel Rives World of Employment blog.

California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed AB 1066, which will require grape growers and other agricultural employers in California to pay overtime under the same conditions as non-agricultural businesses. The bill is the first of its kind in the nation.

California law defines employees “employed in an agricultural occupation” broadly to include any employment relating to the cultivation or harvesting of agricultural commodities, or the maintenance and improvement of a farm and/or farm equipment.  Prior to the signing of AB 1066, such employees were entitled to time-and-a-half pay after working 10 hours in a day or 60 hours in a week.  This is substantially different from the overtime laws for California employees in most other industries and occupations, where overtime pay typically kicks in after eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week.
Continue Reading California Expands Overtime for Farmworkers