Labor – Economic Thinking In Action

Case Update: Time Clock Rounding Analyses

The EmployStats Wage & Hour Consulting Team recently completed work on a case in the state of New York where the Plaintiff’s alleged unpaid straight time and overtime compensation due to the Defendant’s timekeeping policies.

In this case as well as others that EmployStats has worked in the past, the Plaintiff’s alleged that the Defendant’s had a timekeeping policy which systematically understated the employee’s time worked in a given pay period. In practice, some time clock rounding policies may be neutral in principle, but non-neutral in practice. For any number of reasons, the employee or the employer may benefit more often than not from a seemingly neutral rounding policy.

The analysis that we perform typically involves manipulating, matching and analyzing big data from inherently incompatible time and payroll databases. In addition to analyzing the alleged straight time and overtime compensation owed to employees, EmployStats also assists attorneys in the calculation of penalties.

In states such as California and New York, there are penalties for noncompliance with the labor codes. We work with attorneys to calculate the appropriate penalties and interest in the lawsuit or investigation. The EmployStats Wage & Hour Consulting Team is proficient at providing calculations and tabulations that are insightful and well documented.

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: Local Area Unemployment Statistics

Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) is made available by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and offers monthly data on employment and unemployment for approximately 7,500 geographic areas. Unemployment rates are available monthly by county, MSA, and state level.

These estimates are key indicators of local economic conditions, and may be compared over time to examine changes in the labor market.

For more information regarding the LAUS, please refer to www.bls.gov/lau