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Employer Law Blog

We address issues, cases and matters of statutory and regulatory compliance of employment law that can impact a business' growth and profitability.

Employer Law Blog
August 20, 2015

Pay Me!  Should Interns be Paid? A New Test

Plaintiffs were unpaid interns on the Fox Searchlight distributed film Black Swan. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found the Black Swan interns were employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law. The court applied a version of the U.S. Labor Department’s six factor test, which was derived from the 68 year-old Supreme Court decision Walling v. Portland Terminal Co., 330 U.S. 148 (1947), to determine whether the interns fell within an exception for unpaid trainees.

Employer Law Blog
October 6, 2014

EMPLOYER ALERT: No More Wage Secrecy for Federal Contractors

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has published its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on "pay transparency." This NPRM is in follow-up to Executive Order 13665, which President Obama signed on April 8, amending Executive Order 11246 and prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against applicants and employees for discussing their compensation. Generally, with limited exceptions, this proposal prohibits employers from firing or taking other adverse actions against employees who discuss their pay and other employees’ pay.

Employer Law Blog
July 9, 2014

Evaluating Employees… If you do it, do it right

Employee evaluations are not fun. But, they can be important for many reasons. A properly executed evaluation can benefit both the employer and the employee by increasing efficiency and productivity and providing valuable and constructive feedback to the employee. It can also help an employee feel engaged in their work and connected to the organization.