Some lawmakers want to raise the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.55 later this year, then step it up to $15.00 per hour by 2024, and subsequently increase it annually in relation to statistical data.

USDOL reportedly is submitting a proposed rule for review by the federal Office of Management and Budget.  Publication on target for first quarter.

In addition to the minimum wage increase, Massachusetts employers must comply with two less flashy, but more administratively burdensome, changes.

Despite most of the government being occupied with the "shutdown" dilemma, the unaffected USDOL has remained busy and gifted us with two opinion letters today.

Here is a handy summary of the minimum wage increases applicable to most employers in the coming year.

Strategic maneuvering to avoid attorney’s fee award in FLSA collective action.

USDOL has finally clarified the so-called “20% Rule” limiting the use of the FLSA tip credit even with respect to individuals qualifying as “tipped employees”.

The USDOL recently announced that it will continue its Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program, and wasted no time beginning its efforts to further educate employers and attorneys about the benefits of the program.

USDOL has announced that it does not expect to address the FLSA white-collar exemptions (the so-called “overtime rule”) until March 2019 and has slotted "joint employment" for December 2018 instead.

In an opinion illustrating the tangled web we weave when de-facto legislation takes place outside of Congress, the Ninth Circuit in Marsh v. J. Alexander's gave deference to the USDOL's sub-regulatory "20% Rule", restricting an FLSA tipped employee's activities, essentially on the basis that the agency's position was previously available online and that employers were therefore presumed to have notice of its potential effect.