Category: Wage and hour cases

EmployStats is Expanding

The EmployStats team is thrilled to announce a new division of expertise that we can now provide to our clients.

 

Starting in January 2019, the new Wage and Hour Data consulting division began operation under the leadership of Consultant Matt Rigling.  Matt Rigling obtained his Master’s of Arts in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and has been providing EmployStats’ clients with database and data analytics consulting for the past three years.  Under this new division of EmployStats, the team will strive to provide our wage and hour clients with the expertise they need in the construction and tabulation of time and pay record databases, as well as providing wage and hour penalty calculations for our clients in states such as California and New York.  

 

This type of consultation is perfect for both plaintiff and defense attorneys seeking to have the best support for their client in order to efficiently reach a settlement at mediation, as well as both private and government entities simply seeking to perform internal audits of their labor practices.  EmployStats has the capability to swiftly handle large and cumbersome data sets that can sometimes bog down attorneys and paralegals attempting to handle the analysis in-house.

 

Follow this blog as we continue to post about tips for efficiently using data to bring your wage and hour cases to settlement, updates on upcoming events, and current events in the world of labor and employment law.  For more information on Matt Rigling and the EmployStats team, please check us out on our website and social media accounts!

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How do you determine when your wage and hour case needs an economic expert?

Employment lawsuits involving wage and hour disputes can get very messy, very fast.  However, it is critical to determine if the data and the case will require an outside expert early on in the lawsuit.  The more hands and the more opinions on how to produce the result that is desired can only lead to more confusion.  Finding an expert that will know exactly how to work with your data and has a clear objective for finding the answer to your question will save attorneys and clients time, money, and frustration.

A majority of wage and hour disputes consulting firms encounter involve lost meal or rest breaks, time clock rounding, misclassification, or unpaid overtime.  Each of these types of disputes are different, however they all rely on the same type of data, time punch records and payroll records.  Without proper records of the employees, there can be no analysis.  Depending on the company involved and the nature of the case, these records can expand into the tens of millions of observations.  Experts will have the resources and statistical tools to compute large sets of data and export information that will reveal the severity or lack of severity, of the claims.

Essentially, if you find yourself diving in deep and losing yourself, as well as losing your question, in the data, call an expert.

Upcoming EmployStats CLE Seminar

EmployStats is hosting a CLE seminar in San Francisco, California on July 12, 2017 at the prestigious and historic Bently Reserve.  Our intensive Continuing Legal Education event will focus on California’s recent Fair Pay Act, and allegations of Fair Pay Act violations from both the experienced attorney and expert witness perspective.

Attendees we will hear from Lori Andrus, the attorney in the 4 million dollar Farmers Insurance lawsuit. There will also be a discussion by David Neumark, Ph.D., regarding his research into labor market discrimination.  Additionally, attorneys will hear directly from EmployStats Principal Economist Dr. Dwight Steward regarding his expert witness experience with discrimination allegations, as well as insight into the calculations and theories that make up loss of earnings analyses.

For more information on the upcoming CLE and registration, please visit our website at www.employstats.com/california-fair-page-act 

Wage and Hour at EmployStats

In late 2016, the US Department of Labor announced a final ruling on overtime, which may go into effect later this year and increase the number of workers eligible for overtime payment.  Here at EmployStats, our specialized team of Research Associates and Economists is fully capable and ready to handle all your wage & hour needs.

At EmployStats, we analyze FLSA and wage & hour violation claims, including time clock rounding, misclassification, off-the-clock work, and missed meal periods.  Our analyses of wage & hour violations typically involve the statistical review of information such as employee time punch records, payroll data, and employee time diary information.  Our goal at EmployStats is to communicate effectively with our clients and fully invest in the project at hand, in order to achieve the best outcomes and form long-lasting professional relationships.  

Our wage & hour clients include plaintiff and defense attorneys, as well as individual employers across the country.  Our wage & hour projects include expert witness trial testimony, expert reports, consultation, and compliance self-audits.  Statistical sampling is used to investigate wage & hour violations in some cases as well.

For more information on how EmployStats can help you with your wage & hour needs, please visit our website at www.employstats.com/wage-and-hour.

Wage & Hour News: The New Overtime Rule

On Wednesday, May 18th, 2016, The Obama Administration announced a significant expansion of who qualifies for overtime pay under federal labor laws. The Department of Labor has issued the Final Rule, which centers primarily on updating the salary and compensation levels needed for executive, administrative and professional workers to be exempt from overtime pay protections.

The Final Rule increases the salary threshold from $23,660 to $47,476, which is the 40th percentile of earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census Region of the United States. The Department of Labor projects the policy to extend overtime protections to an additional 4.2 million workers, as anyone earning less than the salary threshold is now eligible for overtime payments.

The Final Rule also sets the total annual compensation requirement for highly compensated employees at $134,004, which is the annual equivalent of the 90th percentile of full-time salaried workers in the United States. The Final Rule also amends the salary basis test to allow employers to utilize non-discretionary bonuses and incentive payments to account for up to 10% of the new standard salary level. Lastly,  the ruling establishes a procedure for automatically updating the salary and compensation levels every three years to maintain the levels at the 40th and 90th percentiles of earnings.

The Final Rule will take effect on December 1, 2016, giving employers over six months to prepare and adjust their payment policies. In response, employers will have the options to pay time-and-a-half for overtime work, raise workers’ salaries above the new salary threshold, limit workers’ hours to 40 hours per week, or a combination of the above.

For more information on the new overtime ruling, please visit http://www.dol.gov/featured/overtime.

Video from the Department of Labor:

https://youtu.be/UFJaDm720FU

 

Employment and Wage & Hour Statistics Focus: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries

The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, provides data on the number of fatal on-the-job injuries by type, occupation, industry, or worker characteristics. This data is sometimes used to statistically value a life. Dangerous jobs tend to offer a wage premium in exchange for additional risk of death on the job. Some economists have attempted to quantify the value of life based on the additional wages that must be paid for a worker to accept an increased chance of a fatal accident.

For more information, visit www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfoi1.htm

Employment and Wage & Hour Statistics Focus: Census

Conducted every ten years, the Census is the largest survey in the United States. The 2010 Census represented the most massive participation movement ever witnessed in the US, with approximately 74% of households returning their census by mail. The Census Bureau hired about 635,000 employees to walk through neighborhoods throughout the United States to count the remaining households.

The 100% characteristics form was used with every person and housing unit in the United States. It includes information on sex, age, and race by geographic location. Census data is available at many geographic levels, including blocks, zip codes, county, and state.

The 2010 Census asked detailed questions that include information on educational attainment, marital status, labor-force status, and income. The Census is a very large database and hence has many uses ranging from racial profiling in police-stop baselines to wage data.

For more information, please go to www.census.gov/

2015 FLSA OT report for Food Service Managers

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by food service managers. Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week. The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

Occupational Group Title Percent of OT Workers Average Hours of OT 1 out of every 4 (25%) OT workers works at least:
Food Service Managers 47.14% 16.59 hours 60 hours

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 47.14% of food service managers work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 16.59 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $18.57 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $27.85 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

FLSA OT report for Telemarketers

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by telemarketers. Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week. The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

Occupational Group Title Percent of OT Workers Average Hours of OT 1 out of every 4 (25%) OT workers works at least:
Telemarketers 21.43% 11.67 hours 60 hours

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 21.43% of telemarketers work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 11.67 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $8.48 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $12.72 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

FLSA OT report for RN’s working in hospitals

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by registered nurses who work in hospitals. Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week. The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

Occupational Group Title Percent of OT Workers Average Hours of OT 1 out of every 4 (25%) OT workers works at least:
Registered Nurses in Hospitals 15.44% 10.29 hours 52 hours

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 15.44% of registered nurses in hospitals work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 10.29 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $26.15 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $39.22 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)