Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The much-hyped Paycheck Fairness Act has been shut down and is unlikely to be revived any time soon. The PFA (S. 182; H.R. 11) was initially introduced in 2008 as a companion to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The bill, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2009, needed 60 votes […]
This morning, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis hosted a live webcast promoting the passage of and fielding audience questions about the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA). The webcast, which featured Lilly Ledbetter as cohost, emphasized the current administration’s efforts to eliminate wage discrimination while promoting wage transparency in the workplace, noting that passage of the PFA […]
This morning, President Barack Obama issued a statement from the White House voicing his support for — and urging Congress to move forward on — the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA). In the statement, the President referred to the bill as a “commonsense bill” that is one of the key recommendations of the Equal Pay Enforcement […]
Today the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) hosted a live webcast interview with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. During the webcast, both parties made the case for the necessity of comprehensive immigration reform, decrying individual state movements such as the controversial immigration law in Arizona as a means for racial profiling […]
A new state law imposing stringent notice requirements on Iowa employers engaging in business closings or mass layoffs goes into effect Thursday, July 1, 2010. Near the end of the 2010 session, the Iowa Legislature passed a state version of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Often referred to as a “mini” […]
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a surprising 5-4 decision holding that the previously short-staffed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) acted without authority over the two years it had only two members. As a result, more than 500 opinions decided by that Board are now invalid and will need to be readdressed. In addition […]
Continuing the recently established practice of issuing broadly applicable “Administrator Interpretations” in lieu of wage and hour opinion letters, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Deputy Administrator Nancy Leppink has released the second Administrator Interpretation of 2010. The interpretation, issued June 16, clarifies the definition of “clothes” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), addressing some […]
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama signed a federal memorandum requiring executive agencies to extend to same-sex partners the employment benefits equivalent to those granted to opposite-sex partners. The memorandum expands benefits previously provided to same-sex partners in an executive memorandum signed last October and is the latest in a handful of government moves to preserve […]
During a series of Web chats held last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) unveiled an ambitious prevention program as part of its spring regulatory agenda. The program, known as I2P2, is a major paradigm shift for the department, and as a result, input on the development of the program will be worked […]
Adding momentum to federal agencies’ ongoing initiatives to crack down on employee misclassification, the U.S. House and Senate have introduced legislation intended to curtail the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. The Employee Misclassification Prevention Act, introduced April 22, would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to impose additional compliance and record-keeping requirements on […]