Earlier this week, Portland’s mayor signed into law minimum wage increase for workers in Portland. The minimum wage increase will go into effect in January. The language of the law that the mayor signed could lead to tipped workers also receiving a wage increase even though some of the city’s…
This week the President and the Secretary of Labor announced that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) would be updating overtime regulations so that approximately 5 million more workers would be eligible for overtime pay, including a reported 20,000 workers in Maine. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a law…
Earlier this year, a federal appeals court in the Midwest issued a decision that allowed an employer to potentially escape liability for illegally depriving its employees of wages. The case involved a chain of restaurants called Gusano’s Pizza that allegedly used an illegal tip pooling scheme to deprive employees of…
The paper mill in Bucksport, currently owned by Verso Paper, will be shutting down and hundreds of workers will be laid off. When a closure of a workplace this size occurs in Maine, state law requires the employer to provide severance pay to laid off employees who have worked three…
In 2015, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the minimum wage in 24 states will increase. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour. In 2015, 29 states will require employers to pay more than the federal minimum wage. Maine is one of these 29 states with…
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently released the results of a new study that it commissioned on minimum wage law violations in New York and California. The DOL commissioned this study because it enforces the minimum wage requirements that are in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The…
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals considered this question earlier this month in Bacon et al. v. Eaton Corp. et al. The Bacon case involved shift supervisors who claimed that they did not receive overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours per week. Under the federal Fair…
The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Maine, recently ruled in an unpaid overtime case that the defendant-employer should have included per diem payments when it calculated overtime pay. In the case, Newman and Patague v. Advanced Technology Innovation Corp., Mr. Newman and Mr. Patague argued…
Yesterday, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals held that a reasonable jury could conclude that Flight Services & Systems, Inc. unlawfully retaliated against a former skycap, Joseph Travers, because he complained about Flight Services’ violation of wage & hour laws. Travers had served as a named representative of a…
Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced new regulations that will require employers to pay home care workers the minimum wage and overtime pay. Home care workers provide essential home care assistance to elderly people and people with illnesses, injuries or disabilities. In 2007, Maine passed a law which…