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About this practice

Description

Counseling clients about wage and hour issues, performing wage and hour compliance reviews, and defending related litigation and government agency investigations have been among our firm’s core services for 65 years. With offices positioned across the country, we offer our clients a network of experienced wage and hour attorneys with extensive knowledge of state and federal wage and hour laws.

Compliance review

We regularly assist clients in reviewing company policies and practices, pointing out any areas of non-compliance, and making suggestions for how to come into compliance in a way that fits with the client’s operational needs and minimizes the risk of subsequent litigation or government investigation. 

Some of the areas we focus on include:

  • Classifying employees as exempt or non-exempt from overtime, including examining job duties as well as compensation practices such as deductions from wages;
  • Classifying workers as independent contractors or employees;
  • Proper compensation for all hours worked by non-exempt employees, including activities at the start and end of the workday and tasks performed away from the workplace;
  • Properly calculating overtime, including considering all required compensation in the regular rate and the allocation of compensation items to the proper workweeks;
  • Compliance with prevailing wage and fringe benefits requirements on government contracts;
  • Proper treatment of meal and rest periods;
  • Whether an employer uses the fluctuating workweek correctly;
  • Compliance with child labor laws;
  • Timekeeping procedures; and
  • Recordkeeping.

We believe it is important to address potential wage and hour issues before plaintiffs bring a lawsuit or the government begins an investigation. 

When a wage and hour violation affects many employees over an extended period of time, it can give rise to substantial liability, even if the employer acted in good faith.

Defending wage and hour litigation

In addition to compliance-related counseling, our attorneys regularly litigate wage and hour cases, including single-plaintiff, class, collective, and hybrid actions in federal and state courts, and are consistently at the forefront of emerging issues in FLSA and state wage and hour law. While most of these cases focus on whether employers have properly classified employees as “exempt” from overtime pay requirements or whether non-exempt employees received pay and overtime for all hours worked, we also handle class actions involving a broad range of other wage and hour issues, such as paycheck requirements, bonus calculations, vacation pay, uniforms and dress codes, timekeeping, and waiting time penalties. On a daily basis, our attorneys handle claims alleging misclassification of workers’ exempt status, overtime pay violations, “off the clock” work, inaccurate time and payroll records, time clock rounding practices, and other wage and hour issues for many employers with nationwide or multi-state operations. We are currently defending hundreds of collective or class actions brought by private parties as well as investigations by federal and state Departments of Labor.

Our approach to defending employers in wage and hour class actions involves a vigorous and focused defense led by experienced class action attorneys, with lean staffing. We provide early, realistic assessments of liability and damages and develop business-sensible strategies that consider the implications for future operations.

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