Hospitality Legislation and Regulation to Watch 2016

Mike Abcarian was quoted in Law360 on December 24, 2015. The article “Hospitality Legislation and Regulation to Watch 2016” provided a rundown of hospitality legislation and regulation to keep tabs on in 2016.

Mike provided insight on the FLSA changes coming mid-year.

“This is a big change in the landscape, and it has huge economic and practical impacts for employers, and for everybody,” Mike told Law360.

The DOL took public comments after releasing its proposed rules, and is currently weeding through them and considering revising its proposal. Mike said that until the final rules are announced, employers should proceed as if the rules will be enacted as proposed.

"If you're prepared for it, the way it's been formulated up to this point, you probably aren't going to be too far off in having to make any changes, if tweaking has been done,” he said.

He recommended that businesses take a hard look now at their employment policies for exempt workers to see if there’s anything that can be done to improve the process. This could mean changing some employees’ exempt status, converting some to hourly employees or increasing salaries to meet the new thresholds.

"There's any number of approaches, but all of them implicate some fairly fundamental changes to your business model," Mike said.

He added that businesses should use this opportunity to really assess their employment practices and not limit their assessments to the scope of the regulatory rule changes.

“It's a good time for all employers, and certainly the hospitality industry, to take a fresh and informed look at our exemption methodology,” Mike said. “Not just with an eye towards what little things we'll have to change if the new rules come into place, but also to look at the whole picture."

To read the full article, please visit Law360.