December 09, 2024
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Category: DOL

DOL Appears To Abandon Its Attempt To Overhaul the Registered Apprenticeship Program

The Biden Administration appears to be giving up on its attempt to overhaul the regulations governing registered apprenticeship programs. The Labor Department published its proposed rule on January 17, 2024, and in June sent a draft of the final regulations to the White House Office of Management and Budget for approval. On November 27, 2024, OMB posted on its website that the...
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December 05, 2024
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Category: Disability, Accommodations, and Leaves

DOL Proposes Phasing Out Subminimum Wages for People With Disabilities

DOL’s Wage and Hour Division published a proposed rule December 4 that would phase out the Section 14(c) certificate program that allows employers to pay less than the minimum wage to individuals with disabilities. If the proposed rule were adopted in its current form, applications sent on or after the rule’s effective date would be ignored, and existing certificates would...
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December 04, 2024
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Category: Disability, Accommodations, and Leaves

DOL Says an Employee Has the Right To Use FMLA Leave for a Clinical Trial

An employee may use FMLA leave to participate in a clinical trial or research study to treat a serious health condition, according to a new opinion letter from the Labor Department. An eligible employee has the right to use FMLA leave because of a serious health condition. The Family and Medical Leave Act defines a serious health condition as an...
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November 25, 2024
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Category: Agency Enforcement

President-Elect Trump Taps Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer To Be Secretary of Labor

President-elect Donald Trump (R-Oregon) has named Oregon Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer as his choice to be the next Secretary of Labor. The first-term Congresswoman is an unconventional choice in view of her support for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act (H.R. 20), legislation that would rewrite labor law in favor of organized labor. Sean O’Brien, the general president of...
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November 21, 2024
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Category: DOL

DOL’s Increase to Minimum Salary Threshold for White-Collar Overtime Exemption Blocked Nationwide

A federal court has vacated a Labor Department rule that increased the minimum salary level for the “white-collar” overtime exemption. Therefore, the prior minimum salary threshold of $684 weekly is back in effect. The opinion came November 15 by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Texas v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor. The Biden Administration’s final...
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October 30, 2024
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Category: Agency Enforcement

DOL Enforcement Report Highlights Focus on Coercive Employment Contracts

The Solicitor of Labor has issued a report highlighting DOL’s recent enforcement priority—employment contracts with provisions that may discourage workers from exercising their rights under worker protection laws. The report, Solicitor of Labor Enforcement Report: Coercive Contractual Provisions, lists seven types of concerning provisions. The provisions most likely to concern DOL investigators are those that: require employees to agree that they...
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September 04, 2024
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Category: Agency Enforcement

DOL and NLRB Commit To Further Assist Antitrust Agencies in Merger Investigations

The Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the government’s antitrust enforcement agencies, committing to share information that could help in investigations of allegedly anticompetitive merger acquisitions. The MOU with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), formally called the Memorandum of Understanding on...
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June 05, 2024
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Category: DOL

DOL Claims Manufacturer Is Jointly Liable for Child Labor Violations Committed by Its Supplier

The U.S. Department of Labor recently filed a lawsuit alleging that an auto manufacturer is jointly liable for child labor violations committed by one of its suppliers and the supplier’s staffing company. In its complaint, DOL alleges that the auto manufacturer is so interrelated with its supplier that it is an integrated employer for liability purposes under the Fair Labor Standards Act...
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February 21, 2024
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Category: Agency Enforcement

Inflation Fuels Higher Civil Penalties for Federal Workplace Law Violations in 2024

To account for inflation, various federal workplace enforcement agencies recently raised the civil penalties they charge. The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (the Inflation Adjustment Act) mandates these yearly adjustments. This memo details employment- and immigration-related penalty increases announced by the Department of Labor (DOL), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Department of...
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January 30, 2024
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Category: Compensation

Most Recent Annual BLS Gender Pay Gap Survey (2023) Shows Narrowest Margin Yet Recorded

The wage gap percentage between women and men was 16.2% at the end of 2023, according to a report from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 16.2% wage gap is the narrowest margin reported since BLS began conducting the survey in 1979, when the gap was 37.7%. Although the wage gap has been narrowing steadily, progress has been...
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