Posts tagged 'DOL'

March 14, 2011

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EBSA Hearings on ACA Auto-Enrollment Mandate

The Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) will hold public hearings on April 6 to discuss the automatic enrollment provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). PPACA inserts a provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requiring businesses with 200 or more employees to automatically enroll all employees into a health plan, but new FLSA section 18A will no...

December 7, 2010

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DOL Hotline Helps Employees Sue Employers

ABA DOL Wage and Hour Division

Beginning next Monday, the Department of Labor (DOL) will be setting up a hot line so complaint filers whom the DOL is too busy to serve can call a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) and seek legal redress over wage and FMLA issues. The partnership between the DOL and the ABA springs from the Middle Class Task Force that President Obama set up, and it's part of the administratio...

December 1, 2010

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EBSA Requires 401(k) Fee Transparency

401(k) DOL EBSA final rule on fee transparency

In the wake of a spate of high-profile employee class action lawsuits on excessive 401(k) fees, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has jumped into the fray with the publishing of a final rule of the transparency of fees and expenses associated with 401-(k)-type retirement plans. Plan administrators will now have to provide detailed, plain-language breakouts of all fees and exp...

April 28, 2010

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Bill Introduced to Eliminate/Criminalize Worker Misclassification

DOL independent contractors Labor Secretary Hilda Solis

Even as the Department of Labor (DOL) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) begin scouring workplace records for the improper classification of employees as independent contractors, Congress is weighing in with patches to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to put some bite behind the bark. Senator Sherrod Brown, D.-Ohio, has introduced the Employee Misclassification Protection Act (EMPA), which a...

April 2, 2010

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No April Fool's Joke: New Sheriff Cracks Down

Department of Labor DOL FLSA Hilda Solis

Taking the stage in Chicago at what was once Jane Addams' Hull House, where FDR Labor Secretary Frances Perkins got started, Obama Labor Secretary Hilda Solis launched a nationwide public awareness program called "We Can Help" on April 1. "I have a message for those employers who break this nation's labor laws and prey on vulnerable workers: It ends today," she said in her s...

March 26, 2010

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Denver Restaurants Targeted by DOL for FLSA Compliance

DOL FLSA WHD

The Department of Labor (DOL) is launching a Wage and Hour (WHD) investigation of Denver area restaurants for compliance with overtime pay, working hours, and child labor, according to the local DOL office. Chad Frasier, district director for the Wage and Hour Division in Denver, says that the restaurant industry has been targeted because of past performance by similar businesses. "The ind...

March 16, 2010

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DOL to Add Still More Inspectors in 2011

DOL IRS misclassification of employees WHD

Testifying before a House subcommittee, Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Hilda Solis recently detailed plans for fiscal 2011 to use $1.7 billion out of a budget of $116.5 billion, along with 10,957 employees out of 17,800 total, for what she called "worker protection activities." Plans also call for adding another 90 inspectors to the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) after the addition...

February 11, 2010

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Like Other DOL Agencies, OFCCP to Beef Up Enforcement

Barack Obama DOL OFCCP

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is receiving a 33-percent budget increase for fiscal 2011 and will use the money to hire 213 new compliance officers and launch a more rigorous enforcement program. The OFCCP is tasked with monitoring compliance with federal labor laws and regulations by contractors working on federal government contracts. In announcing its "unprec...

December 8, 2009

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DOL Releases 2010 Agenda: Welcome Back, Ergonomics

David Michaels DOL DOL agenda ergonomics standard OSHA

The Department of Labor (DOL) has released its agenda for the coming year, and it has a few surprises to spring on American business. First (for discussion's sake), the DOL wants each paycheck to come with a stub or explanation of hours worked, overtime paid and everything else that went into the computation of the amount. Next, it's eyeing the resurrection of the ergonomics standard that was r...

August 28, 2009

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FLSA Misconceptions About Off-the-Clock Work

DOL FLSA off-the-clock overtime

We've just posted a new white paper in that section on the Personnel Concepts new Web site entitled "Popular Misconceptions," in which we examine the ingenious ways that employers seek to stay off the overtime-pay radar of the Department of Labor (DOL). Let's look at one of those methods: Say Employer A sends 20 hourly employees to training on a Saturday. He calls it "voluntary," but the emplo...

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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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