Expert Compliance Insights & Tips for Businesses

May 4, 2011

59 view(s)

EEOC Seeks to Bundle Discrimination Claims as 'Class Charges'

In an approach similar to class-action lawsuits, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is now pursuing what it calls Class Charges—disability and age discrimination claims that deal with multiple employees in one location or spread out geographically. The institution of a Class Charge is simple enough: When employees file claims for disability or age discrimination (or for an...

May 3, 2011

63 view(s)

DOL Internship Standard Challenged in Court

DOL FLSA interns

Calling the Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #71—"Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act"—"a poor method" and "overly rigid and inconsistent," the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of a for-profit nursing home that relied in part on interns to run its operations. The Labor Department issued a six-factor test to determin...

April 28, 2011

43 view(s)

OSHA Celebrates 40th Anniversary Today

OSHA Richard Nixon

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was signed into law 40 years ago today (April 28, 2011) by then-President Richard Nixon. In a ceremony marking the anniversary, OSHA head David Michaels noted that, at the time of signing, 14,000 Americans were dying on the job every year, a number that has been reduced to 4,400 through OSHA regulations and oversight, he added. "The ...

April 27, 2011

84 view(s)

NLRB Expands Protected Concerted Activity Scope

NLRA NLRB unionization

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) extends workplace safeguards to employees' "protected concerted activity" in discussing wages, hours and working conditions, a protection that was generally thought to be confined to union organizing. Thus if a worker were fired for discussing a union issue with other employees, that could be considered a violation of the NLRA, ...

April 26, 2011

55 view(s)

New Jersey Bans Help Wanted Ads That Shun the Unemployed

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) earlier this year held a series of meetings to look into the issue of businesses' refusing to hire the unemployed and blatantly announcing so in their help wanted advertisements. Now, New Jersey has taken matters into its own hands and outlawed ads that exclude the unemployed, whether the ads appear online or in print. The penalty for...

April 25, 2011

56 view(s)

DOL Seeking Comments on Electronic Disclosure Rules

benefit plans DOL summary plan descriptions

Under a 2002 electronic safe harbor rule, benefit plan administrators can use electronic delivery methods for summary plan descriptions, benefit statements, administrative forms, annual notices and the like. However, the safe harbor places various restrictions on the use of electronic delivery. For instance, merely posting the information on an intranet site is not deemed sufficient, but sendin...

April 22, 2011

39 view(s)

Wage, Hour, Overtime Settlements Fall in Dollar Value But Rise in Frequency

Wal-Mart is all over the news as the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to let a massive class-action, gender-discrimination lawsuit with the potential for a multi-million-dollar judgment to go forward. Meanwhile, NERA Economic Consulting has pored through public records of 187 settlements based on wage-and-hour violations from 2007 to 2010 and found that, though the average dollar value of the...

April 21, 2011

61 view(s)

Free-Choice Voucher and 1099 Reporting Ended

1099 Reporting ACA Free Choice Voucher PPACA

The law that President Obama signed this month to eliminate 1099 reporting under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) also eliminated the "Free Choice Voucher" component of the health care act. Free Choice Vouchers were to be made available to employees who earned less than 400 percent of the poverty line and whose contribution to employer-sponsored health insurance ...

April 19, 2011

56 view(s)

Social Security Administration Resumes Sending No-Match Letters

DHS ICE IRS no-match letters SSA USCIS

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has resumed its practice of sending no-match letters to notify employers when any of their employees' submitted Social Security numbers do not correspond to a valid number on record. The SSA temporarily stopped issuing the letters in 2009 when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under pressure from both unions and business groups, withdrew its...

April 15, 2011

52 view(s)

PPACA Requirement for 1099 Reporting Axed

1099 ACA PPACA

Congress has passed and President Obama has signed legislation to repeal a much-loathed provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that would have required the issuance of an IRS form 1099 for every expenditure of $600 or more. The mandate would have kicked in on Jan. 1, 2012, but HR4 amended PPACA to eliminate the requirement. In practice the provision would have force...

290 of 329

Options

Recent Articles

Practical articles on HR, Safety, compliance, and people operations—written for real businesses, not legal textbooks.

EEOC Rescinds Permissible Affirmative Action Guidance

On June 30, 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) officially rescinded two longstanding documents relating to permissible affirmative action. The documents were part of the EEOC's guidance on affirmative action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

DOJ Challenges EEOC's Stance on Disparate Impact Claims

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently issued a legal opinion that may signal major changes ahead in federal workplace discrimination enforcement. In a June 9, 2026 memorandum, the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) expressed the opinion that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's...

Department of Labor Issues 2026 Civil Penalty Update: No Adjustments This Year

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently published its annual update announcement regarding federal civil monetary penalties under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act. In a notice published in the Federal Register on May 27th, 2026, the DOL announced that no penalty increases...

U.S. Department of Labor Issues New Opinion Letters on Overtime Exemptions, Bonuses, and Compensable Time

On May 29th, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released several new opinion letters addressing key wage & hour issues. Specifically, one of the four documents informed readers whether an exempt employee could perform additional work in a secondary role at an hourly rate and still be eligible...

EEOC Issues New National Enforcement Plan Through 2029

On June 4th, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a new 2025-2029 National Enforcement Plan (NEP). The NEP sets the EEOC’s specific subject-matter priorities from June through fiscal year 2029.

View All Articles