Category: Wage and Hour
Portland, Maine Employers: Emergency Minimum Wage
Yesterday, January 11, 2023, at 12:15 p.m., Governor Janet Mills declared a state of emergency in Cumberland County as a result of the severe storm earlier in the week. As Portland, Maine employers may recall, when the State issues a state of emergency, it triggers the emergency minimum wage...
HR Power Hour with Brett Barlow – Rethinking Payment Practices
On this episode of HR Power Hour, join Verrill attorney Tawny Alvarez as she talks to Brett Barlow. This episode discusses rethinking payment practices. Brett Harlow has over 25 years of experience leading SaaS businesses and consumer brands and is currently CEO of Everee, a fintech company that is...
Attention Portland Employers: Updates on Mask Mandate, Hazard Pay
On Monday, Portland City Councilors took two significant actions that affect employers in Portland, Maine. First, the Council repealed an emergency order from March 2020, eliminating the hazard pay provision set forth in the city’s minimum wage ordinance. Second, the Council enacted a city-wide indoor mask mandate affecting most...
What Does The Proposed Federal Minimum Wage Mean For My Business?
On July 22, 2021 the U.S. Department of Labor proposed a rule titled “Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors” [1] formalizing the Biden Administration’s Executive Order 14026. The rule calls for federal contractors to pay their workers $15/hour and tipped workers $10.50/hour beginning on January 30, 2022. Both...
Are You Paying Attention to your Classifications?
DOL Scraps Trump-era Interpretative Letters and 60,000 U.K. Uber Drivers Entitled to Worker Benefits It has been a big day for changes on the worker classification front. In the last 24 hours, Britain’s highest court found that Uber drivers are entitled to minimum wage and overtime and the U.S...
Getting Ready for Election Day: Employee Voting
Election Day is right around the corner. While many employees may choose to vote by mail, chances are you may have employees requesting time away from the workplace (or a remote work set-up) to vote in person. Now is a better time than ever to brush up on employers&rsquo...
To Test or Not to Test: Employer Considerations Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
Q: I am concerned about employees coming to work with a fever—can I test employees’ temperatures before allowing them to work to avoid spreading the coronavirus? Verrill’s View: Maybe—but there are many factors to consider. Generally, taking an employee’s temperature would be a restricted medical examination, but employers may...
COVID-19: Updated FAQs
Employers across the country are struggling with how to support their employees and their customers, and also to keep their business afloat, as the cry for social isolation to curb the spread of the novel COVID-19 (coronavirus) grows stronger. There are a lot of complicated issues that we are...
The Coronavirus: FAQs for Employers
We’ve been here before. Remember the H1N1 outbreak of 2009? That little bug originated outside of Mexico City. As the virus spread, governments issued travel warnings and schools were on notice to be extra vigilant. There was even a quarantined cruise ship and a run on surgical masks. Sound...
Wage and Hour Update for the New Year
With the New Year comes changes in many state and federal wage and hour laws. Do you operate in a state that has recently experienced a raise in the minimum wage? It is always best practice to check out your state’s Department of Labor website for the most up-to-date...
A Webinar for Home Care Companies
Are you a home care company and wondering about wage and hour differences and electronic visit verification? In this webinar, Verrill's employment and labor attorney Tawny Alvarez and Masspay's HR Generalist Amanda Bridge discuss prevalent wage and hour violations, electronic visit verification, and serious implications for the home care...
A Podcast Miniseries for Your HR Needs: HR Law 101
In case you missed it, here is a recap of our Verrill Voices podcast series, HR Law 101: Understanding the HR Basics, hosted by employment and labor attorney Tawny Alvarez. Each episode is intended to provide startup entrepreneurs and HR newcomers with a strong foundational knowledge of the laws...
Certain Bonuses Must Be Included When Calculating Overtime Pay
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) generally requires that nonexempt employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek be paid 1.5 times their “regular rate” for the hours above 40. Calculating overtime pay is simple if the employee receives only a basic hourly rate as compensation...
Five Employment Law Traps For CFOs Tasked with HR Oversight
Overseeing human resources -- a hat that many CFOs wear -- may mean having to make crucial decisions about hiring and policy, performance management and discipline, and employee terminations. Such decisions may affect HR expenses and employee morale, and also may expose the company to the risk of expensive...
Tip: Administrative Assistants Only Rarely Are Exempt From Overtime Pay
Office workers who perform secretarial, receptionist and other administrative tasks are often incorrectly classified as exempt from overtime pay because they receive a salary and have job titles such as "executive assistant." These employees; however, will not necessarily be found exempt from the requirement to pay overtime merely because...
Overtime Update to Have Wide Reaching Effect on Employers
Today, September, 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a final rule to increase the salary threshold necessary to remain an exempt employee. The change is estimated to affect 1.3 million American workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Below is a synopsis of the facts embodying...
What Maine Employers Need To Know About Changes In Personnel Practices Following This Legislative Session
On June 26, 8:00-9:30 AM, we are hosting 'What Maine Employers Need To Know About Changes In Personnel Practices Following This Legislative Session' in our Portland office. During this in-person seminar, Verrill Dana and MassPay are partnering to deliver a discussion about the latest laws and regulations that were...
Maine Employers Must Cease Seeking Compensation History
On April 12, 2019, Governor Mills signed into law LD 278 , "An Act Regarding Pay Equality." Under the new laws (5 M.R.S.A. § 4577; 26 M.R.S.A. § 628-A) employers may not "use or inquire about the compensation history of a prospective employee from the prospective employee or a...
DOL’s Proposed Rule Making on Regular Rate of Pay
The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division recently announced a proposed rule updating regulations governing what items are included in an employee's regular rate of pay. This constitutes the first update to the definition of the regular rate of pay in over fifty years. Under the Fair...
Breaking: DOL Unveils Proposed Changes to FLSA Overtime Pay Requirements
Yesterday, March 7, 2019, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) unveiled a proposal to change the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as it applies to non-exempt employees eligible for overtime. The proposed change increases the required weekly salary to maintain an exempt position from the current $455 per...
Times are Changing: Verrill Dana Hosts Full-Day Conference, 2019 Annual Employment Law Update
After a year full of changes for employers paired with a new governor in Maine, Verrill Dana will reflect on recent legal developments in labor and employment law and what the new year might bring during its 2019 Annual Employment Law Update. The full-day conference will take place on...
New Episodes in our HR Law 101 Podcast Miniseries: Understanding the HR Basics
Whether you're the founder of a startup, new to HR, or are looking for a refresher on some of the basics, this podcast miniseries will provide you with the building blocks necessary to successfully achieve a healthy and compliant employer/employee relationship. In each episode, Verrill Dana labor and employment...
12 Days of HR: Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town and Here’s What You Better Watch Out For When It Comes to Holiday Bonuses
He's making a list and checking it twice—you know the drill: Santa's game is that he rewards good behavior during the year with gifts under the tree. And when it comes to employees, the most requested item on their list continues to be holiday bonuses. Maybe your company is...
Changing Policies and Practices? Don’t Just Question if it’s Legal, Question the PR Consequences
Over the past few days, while many were preparing turkeys or throwing out lettuce, the Boston Globe posted Trouble is brewing at craft beer darling Trillium. The article is accessible here , and another article by Paste on the same subject is here , but the long and the...
A Podcast Miniseries, HR Law 101: Understanding the HR Basics
Whether you're the founder of a startup, new to HR, or are looking for a refresher on some of the basics, this podcast miniseries will provide you with the building blocks necessary to successfully achieve a healthy and compliant employer/employee relationship. In each episode, Verrill Dana labor and employment...
Dear Byron: Let's Talk About Prior Salary
[Letter to Byron D. Verrill, who in 1862 began the law practice known today as Verrill Dana, LLP] Dear Byron D. Verrill: When I'm interviewing applicants for a new position is it okay for me to ask about prior or current salary at other employers? Thanks, Hugh Gotthis Dear...
Unpaid Labor: Focus Shifts from Hollywood to Baseball to Church
In the past we have focused a lot on volunteer labor. The fact that generally an individual cannot "volunteer" to work for a for-profit business. The days of unpaid internships where someone volunteers their time to gain valuable experience has long since passed with the necessity that the individual...
Does Massachusetts’s Pay Equity Law Change the Game?
On July 1, 2018, Massachusetts Pay Equity law takes effect requiring all employers to pay men and women equally for comparable work—a phrase that is different from many similar statutes that have gone into effect over the course of the last few years. What are the key points that...
Massachusetts Equal Pay Act: 6 Things Employers Need to Know
In the latest episode of Verrill Voices, labor and employment attorney Tawny Alvarez discusses best practices for complying with the upcoming amendments to the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act (MEPA), which was initially passed in order to establish pay equity among employees of different genders. Within the podcast Tawny covers...
On Air with Ken and Matt: An Employment Law Update
In case you missed it, labor and employment attorneys Benjamin Ford and Tawny Alvarez were live on air in the Newsradio WGAN studio on the morning of Friday, December 22, discussing the firm's upcoming 2018 Annual Employment Law Update on January 25 in Portland. The morning news segment with...
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