Articles by Girish Anand

May 21, 2014

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Wage-and-Hour Lawsuits Continue Their Rise

Wage-and-hour lawsuits rose 5 percent year over year during the 12-month period ending March 31, tapping out at 8,126 cases filed. This is the seventh straight yearly rise, with the increase from the year 2000 standing at 438 percent, according to data from the Federal Judicial Review Center. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) lawsuits generally involve issues of unpaid overtime, minimum wag...

May 20, 2014

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Court Orders Employer to Pay for Employee's Medical Marijuana

In an unusual twist for a state that outlaws marijuana use except in specified medical situations, the New Mexico Court of Appeals has ordered a repair shop owner and the shop's workers' compensation insurer to pay for medical marijuana use to treat an employee's work-injury-related chronic back pain. Ben's Automotive Services and Redwood Fire & Casualty initially refu...

May 15, 2014

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EEOC Seeks Public Input on Employing the Disabled

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that it is inviting public input on potential revisions to the regulations implementing Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a law that governs employment of individuals with disabilities by the federal government. Current Section 501 regulations prohibit employment discrimination based on disability and explain ...

May 14, 2014

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DOL Secretary Re-Establishes Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee

whistleblowers

Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez announced he will re-establish the charter of the Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee (WPAC). WPAC was established to advise and make recommendations to the secretary of Labor and the assistant secretary for Occupational Safety and Health on ways to improve the fairness, efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of OSHA's whistleblower prote...

May 13, 2014

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Faces of HIPAA Enforcement Changing

Susan McAndrew, dubbed by fellow workers in the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) as "the mother of HIPAA," retired on May 2, and now the leader of the entire group -- OCR Director Leon Rodriguez -- is on the verge of moving over to head the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), to whose leadership post he was recently nominated by President Obama. At OCR, McAndrew, the...

May 12, 2014

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Virginia First State to Release 2015 Obamacare Premiums

Virginia today became the first state to unveil the premiums its health insurers will charge on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces come next fall, with increases ranging from 3.3 percent to 14.9 percent, according to insurance company filings with the state. Anthem HealthKeepers, run by WellPoint, will hike premiums an average of 8.5 percent, with a low increase of 0.5 percent and...

May 10, 2014

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Health Insurance CEO Pay Skyrockets in Wake of ACA

Though the big health insurers fought many provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tooth and nail, that didn't stop them from finding a rainbow in the midst of health care reform and jacking up the pay of their chief executive officers. Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini is now up in the stratosphere with total compensation at $30.7 million a year. Other CEOs are following closely in his fo...

May 7, 2014

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Insurers Say About 80 Percent of Obamacare Enrollees Have Paid Up

Several insurers report that about 80 percent of those who signed up for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces have made their initial premium payments, but they add that there are "many duplicate enrollments" among the 8 million the Obama administration claims enrolled by the deadline. The duplicates arose when people frustrated at the HealthCare.gov si...

May 6, 2014

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Maryland Joins List of States Raising the Minimum Wage

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has signed legislation to gradually raise the state's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, reaching the target rate by July 2018. The first step is a hike to $8 an hour on Jan. 1, 2015. The wage hike was O'Malley's legislative priority for the last of his eight years in office, though he wanted an earlier start date for the new minimum wage. &l...

May 5, 2014

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HSA Contribution Limits to Rise for 2015

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced slight increases in maximum allowable contributions to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for 2015. For individual-only health plans, the contribution maximum rises from $3,300 this year to $3,350 in 2015. For family health plans, the limit goes up to $6,650 from $6,550 in 2014. To qualify for an HSA, an employee must have either an individ...

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Girish Anand

Recent Articles

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

U.S. Department of Labor Officially Restores Prior Overtime Exemption Rules

On May 14th, 2026, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced it has officially rescinded the 2024 overtime exemption rules. Specifically, the WHD published a technical amendment to restore previous 2019 regulations that dictated overtime exemptions for...

NLRB General Counsel Takes Action to Tackle Current Case Backlog

On May 6th, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and NLRB General Counsel Crystal Stowe Carey announced the bulk transfer of thousands of labor practice cases. Specifically, this action fulfills an initiative signed by the NLRB General Counsel earlier this year. Overall, the initiative...

Privacy Agency Invites Comments from Businesses on the CCPA’s Usage of Personal Data

Recently, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) issued a call for comments on the current state of personal data collection under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Specifically, the invitation to deliver remarks was issued on April 20th, 2026. The information provided by the...

DOL Proposes New Joint Employer Rule To Unify Standards Under Federal Labor Laws

In April 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed rule to establish a single, clear standard for determining when joint-employer status applies under three major federal laws: the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Migrant and Seasonal...

DOL Updates Enforcement Approach for Employee Benefit Plans: What Employers Should Know

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced a significant change in its enforcement of employee benefit plan rules. The DOL will now focus more closely on serious violations that harm workers and retirees, meaning compliant employers may face less scrutiny under the updated approach.

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Articles by Girish Anand