BUSINESS
Fair Labor Standards Act A plaintiff lawyer's perspective by Todd Stanton Take another look at the photo for this article.
The plaintiffs’ attorney who snapped this photo funded their 2018 world tour with the fees earned by suing businesses like yours for FLSA violations.
Beautiful, isn’t it? It’s Bali. It’s from a villa on a Wednesday morning early in December 2018. The butler had just placed the floating breakfast for two in the couple’s private infinity pool. The weather was perfect - right between 78 and 84 degrees all afternoon.
The attorney who sent me the picture was wrapping up a year of travel. In fact, they visited all seven continents. Everywhere in the world. In a year. This Bali excursion was “just a little side trip” from a broader tour of Australia and New Zealand. Is this what you’ll be doing in 2020? Enjoying poached eggs at a spa on the other side of the world?
UAC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2020
My sarcasm should be obvious, and, yes, I’m intentionally trying to create a bit of resentment here. I’m doing so, though, to drive home a point:
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If you’re a business owner, an executive, a supervisor, or have any human resources responsibility in your job and are not intently familiar with the Fair Labor Standards Act (the FLSA), you should be. And now. I say this because the plaintiffs’ attorney who snapped the photo above sure is – they funded their 2018 world tour with the fees earned by suing businesses like yours for FLSA violations. And business owners like you picked up the
tab for the whole trip...Oh yeah, and you paid their clients – your (likely former) employees – thousands of dollars, too. Even if you think you know the laws regarding employee pay, you’ll probably want to take another look. If you’re like most employers, you’ll be surprised at how much of what you think you know about the FLSA simply isn’t true.
Overview of the FLSA The most common problem I’ve encountered since opening up my practice is employers who are not compensating their employees correctly. Unfortunately for these employers, wage and hour cases are big business for plaintiffs’ attorneys, and the Department of Labor loves making examples out of unsuspecting employers who are, in many cases, simply uninformed about the intricacies of compensation law. Even a single FLSA violation (even if unintentional and made simply out of ignorance of the law) can bankrupt a company.
You’re likely covered by the FLSA For virtually every employer in the United States, wage payment practices are governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA. Many states and municipalities have similar wage payment laws that provide workers additional “protections,” but the FLSA is granddaddy of them all. Being able to issue-spot potential FLSA problems is the bare minimum for employers. The FLSA mandates that employers pay employees who are subject to the Act at least the minimum wage for all hours worked (currently $7.25) and overtime pay for all hours worked in
