The United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a Final Rule regarding the classification of workers as employees or independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA” or the “Act”). The Final Rule went into effect on March 11, 2024. As employers are aware, the Act’s minimum wage and overtime protections only apply to employees, not independent contractors. The Final Rule rescinds the DOL’s 2021 Independent Contractor Rule and its use of two “core factors” to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor and reflects a return to the pre-2021 “totality-of-the-circumstances” analysis to determine if a worker is economically dependent on the employer.
Read MoreAs employers may recall, on October 27, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) published the long-awaited Final Rule (“New Rule”) concerning the joint-employer standard. The New Rule was supposed to take effect on December 26, 2023, but it was delayed more than once due to legal challenges. Most recently, the New Rule’s effective date was delayed to March 11, 2024; however, on March 8, 2024, a federal court judge in Texas vacated the New Rule. This means that for now, employers must continue to follow the joint employer rule issued in 2020. As a reminder, under that rule, a joint-employer relationship exists where a company exercises substantial direct and immediate control over the essential terms and conditions of another company’s employees.
Read MoreAs employers may recall, earlier this month the New York Department of Labor (DOL) issued proposed regulations seeking to modify several industry-specific wage requirements including the salary threshold for exempt executive and administrative employees. Additionally, earlier in the year, New York enacted state budget legislation that would increase the statewide minimum wage each year through 2026. On December 27, 2023, the DOL published a Notice of Adoption in the New York State Register, which finalized the proposed increases to the minimum wage and the salary threshold for exempt employees and set their effective date to January 1, 2024.
Read MoreWe previously reported that Mayor Eric Adams signed an ordinance that amended the New York City Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”) to prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their actual or perceived height and weight. This ordinance took effect at the end of November. The NYC Commission on Human Rights (“NYCCHR”) is drafting rules related to this prohibition, which are expected to be released in the first quarter of 2024. In the interim, employers should look to the FAQS recently published by the NYCCHR concerning this ordinance.
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