Latest Posts

I’m in a restaurant and my kid secretly declares war on the floor below the highchair.  While I’m trying to contain the damage, my wife’s iced tea finds it way within the arm-reach danger zone.  Containment breached.  For a brief moment the table and floor are a raging river of macaroni, French fries, and iced tea.  In the aftermath I catch the wide eyes of my waiter as he is walking toward me, and in that moment I am very aware of America’s rich tradition of tipping waiters and waitresses. Continue reading Tipping Off Your Tipped Employees About the FLSA Tip Credit is Just the Tip of the Ice Berg – What You Need to Know About the Tip Credit.

What’s remarkable about records is that it seems as though you never know how much one is worth until you don’t have it.  As a small business owner, this is especially true about the records you’re required to keep for your employees.  In the wage and hour world, both the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Maryland Wage and Hour Law (MWHL) require that you maintain information related to how many hours your non-exempt employees work and how much you pay them.[1] Failure to keep the required records can turn into a really bad day for a business owner, specifically if facing a Department of Labor audit or if facing a wage and hour lawsuit. Continue reading An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – the importance of keeping wage and hour records for your employees.

A properly drafted non-compete agreement is a beautiful thing. Sadly, a large percentage of non-competes die on the drafting table. These deaths are preventable.

Non-competes work best when employees and their lawyers believe they would be upheld by the courts.  The goal is to have the employee’s lawyer tell him, “Meh, this would probably be upheld. Keep your nose clean or get out your checkbook.” Continue reading Non-Competes: Get More by Asking for Less

Today is probably a great day for workers earning the minimum wage in Maryland to walk into their boss’ offices and ask for a raise.  I would even be so bold as to predict that by Friday those workers will see a fifty-cent per hour increase in their pay.  Psychic predictions aside, the Maryland Minimum Wage Act of 2014 imposes a schedule of minimum-wage increases, one of which takes effect Friday, July 1st, 2016. Continue reading New Minimum Wage Rate Effective July 1st, 2016

The President of the United States and the Secretary of Labor walk into a bar, the bar manager says, “What can I get you?”  The President says, “how about some overtime on the rocks?”  They all have a good laugh and the Final Rule was born.

No joke and slightly more complicated than that, was the two-year process that began in 2014 with the President directing the Department of Labor to update regulations guiding overtime coverage.  In 2015, the Department proposed its rulemaking and solicited public comment.  270,000 comments later, the Department went to work.   Continue reading New Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Overtime Standards