A new rule may have more New York servers sharing tips with other restaurant co-workers who haven’t received tips in the past. The U.S. Department of Labor has amended the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to require nontraditional shared tip pools if restaurant servers...
Employment Law For Employees
Sexual harassment in the workplace now happening remotely
Countless professionals have become comfortable navigating Zoom meetings. But as workers settled into the new reality of working remotely in 2020-2021, new issues and transgressions emerge. Those who acted professionally in an office's relatively formal environment...
Appeals court rules that Uber and Lyft must classify drivers as employees
For months, Uber and Lyft have been fighting the state of California over whether they must classify their workers as employees rather than as independent contractors. An October 23rd appeals court ruling sided with California, which wants drivers working for...
Are New York employers supposed to pay employees for time in voluntary training programs?
While this sounds like a straightforward question, the answer is that it depends. This matter is actually regulated in some detail under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and its regulations – the main body of federal law governing wage-and-hour matters for...
Do U.S. employment laws protect New Yorkers who work abroad?
Federal employment laws typically apply only to workers who are employed in the United States or its territories. Employees who work overseas must generally rely on the employment laws of the country or region in which they work. However, there are exceptions for U.S....
Retaliatory discharge for reporting illegal discrimination or harassment
Federal, state and, local laws prohibit employment discrimination and harassment based on certain protected characteristics, such as sex, race, religion, disability, and age. An aspect of anti-discrimination in employment law that does not get as much attention is...
Legal rights of nursing mothers at work in New York
Nursing mothers in New York have the right, under both federal and state laws, to take breaks during work to express breastmilk. These laws are important because they allow nursing women to take necessary breaks without worrying about jeopardizing their jobs, they...
Am I eligible for overtime pay?
Your employer may sometimes expect you to put in additional time outside of your regular hours-even if they will not pay you for it. Or, perhaps they do compensate you for these hours but not with the standard time-and-a-half expected for overtime wages. Both of these...
New York employers and coronavirus liability waivers
As New York businesses and other establishments and entities have emerged from the shutdown from COVID-19, those that employ people face the challenge of keeping their employees as safe as possible in the face of a highly contagious, microscopic virus. One subject of...
Federal law bans job discrimination based on LGBTQ status, says SCOTUS
On Monday, June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) announced that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans sex discrimination in employment, encompasses a prohibition on job discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity. The decision...
