Womble Employment Law Blog

Updated, September 19, 2017:  Due to the 2016 "white collar" regulations being struck down by a federal court, we have removed the Resource Page as no longer relevant or accurate. The last week of February is upon us, and the Department of Labor has not yet issued the highly anticipated new FLSA regulations which will propose changes to the white collar exemptions.   Announced by President Obama nearly a year ago, the proposed rules (which have already been postponed once) are currently scheduled for release sometime this month.   If the FLSA proposed rules become law, they are expected to dramatically change which employees can be classified as exempt, which in turn may significantly impact wages and overtime pay to workers. Womble Carlyle is pleased to announce a Resource Page to help businesses prepare for these proposed rules, which will be the most significant change to the FLSA in more than a decade.   The Resource Page provides businesses with the latest informatio

Right now, many organizations are getting ready for a new class of interns to arrive in May when schools and colleges finish for the summer.   With fully laudable intentions, many organizations offer summer internships as a chance to allow students to get their feet wet in a business or industry, fully recognizing that the students’ contributions and added value, if any, are not that great. Experience teaches that many organizations do not pay interns.   However, this is often a risky proposition.   Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the legal standard to qualify as an unpaid internship is actually quite high.   The consequence of failing to meet that legal standard—and in our experience many may not—is that the “intern” is deemed to be a misclassified employee, and would be entitled to be paid minimum wage and overtime for all of the hours worked as an unpaid intern.   This exposure, including liquidated damages and potential penalties and attorneys’ fees, can be significant. I

The EEOC's new Chair, Jenny R. Yang, presided over her first commission meeting on January 14, 2015.  Ms. Yang was confirmed as a member of the EEOC in 2013 and served as Vice Chair.  She was appointed as the new Chair of the EEOC by President Obama last fall.  Ms. Yang has a distinguished professional history , and is the first Asian-American Chair of the EEOC. The EEOC's first meeting of 2015 focused on exploring effective ways to eliminate workplace harassment.  Panelists bringing multiple perspectives to the issue discussed ways to achieve that goal, with a number emphasizing the importance of awareness and workforce training.  Ms. Yang noted that the EEOC was committed to developing communication and outreach strategies to educate and inform, while also focusing on increased enforcement efforts directed to workplace harassment.   Ms. Yang stated that "[b]y identifying underlying problems in workplaces and industries where we see recurring patterns of harassment, w