When employers run afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), costly remediation can follow. In 2019, a judge ordered Steak 'n Shake to pay $7.7 million in liquidated damages to the misclassified managers it denied overtime pay. NaviHealth recently agreed to pay $4.69 million to resolve claims that it misclassified "care management employees" as exempt from overtime. Amazon settled a class-action lawsuit in May for $11 million after workers alleged they should have been paid for time spent in mandatory security searches. Back in January, PNC Bank said it would pay $2.75 million to a class of former customer service reps to settle allegations they were regularly required to work off the clock and denied overtime pay. The list could go on and on.
To avoid such hefty fines — and to ensure workers are compensated fairly — compensation leaders must understand the boundaries erected by the FLSA, in addition to state and local laws. But that's a tall order considering the past year of U.S. Department of Labor updates. Below, HR Dive has compiled eight stories that encapsulate the most important pieces of recent FLSA news and highlight the insights pay professionals need to understand them.
