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Workers across the United States that are bound by noncompete agreements may have some good news coming. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has suggested a new regulation that would prohibit employers from enforcing non-compete agreements on their employees. This common and frequently unjust practice limits salaries, inhibits creativity, and prevents entrepreneurs from launching new businesses. According to the FTC, this proposed rule could enhance overall salaries by approximately $300 billion annually and create more career prospects for ...

A federal judge in California has ordered Virgin America Inc. and Alaska Airlines to pay $31M in unpaid wages and penalties to flight attendants who claimed Virgin America and Defendant Alaska Airlines failed to pay overtime premiums, provide meal periods and rest breaks, provide accurate wage statements, and other violations of the UCL and the PAGA. The ruling applies to all affected flight attendants who have worked for Virgin America, Inc. in California between March 18, ...

A recent Supreme Court ruling has upheld a 2021 Fifth Circuit decision which held that despite earning well over minimum wage , if an employee is not paid a set salary by its employer, they may be eligible to earn overtime pay when working over 40 hours per week. This is a huge win for employees across all industries. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), a worker is entitled to overtime pay as long as they do not fall under one of several exemptions, most of which consider in part whether an employee was paid a set ...

Layoffs in the tech industry continue to pile on as we settle into 2023. The wave of hiring freezes and layoffs picked up full steam in 2022 with large tech companies firing more than 5-20% of their work force. Many believe the job cuts are in major part due to over hiring and over paying for talent during the height of the pandemic. Firms hired aggressively to capitalize on the demand for online purchases and social media use during lockdowns. 

These mass ...

Flight attendants for United Airlines have just had their significant wage deal for owed wages confirmed by the courts. A California federal judge has recently given their initial approval of the $53.5 million settlement resolving claims that the major airline failed to provide adequate wage statements as required by California Labor Code. Affected individuals include all current and former flight attendants employed by UnitedAirlines based at a California airport between August 2014 and March 31, 2023. Over 5,000 flight attendants stand to benefit from this payout.

The lawsuit which was originally filed back in 2015, alleged that United Airlines did not provide detailed and accurate wage ...

Passing fines onto employees in the finance industry may be on the rise. Companies such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and UBS that have been probed and fined recently by the SEC for misuse of personal devices. Some of these financial firms are now looking into offloading these fines onto their employees. In 2021, the SEC launched an investigation into banks to see if they had been properly monitoring their employees’ conversations regarding official business. This past September, the agency ended up fining 16 financial institutions, including some big-name banks, $1.8 billion after evidence of employees discussing business deals and trades on personal devices ...

Timesheet rounding for workers is unfortunately a common tactic used by employers to save on labor costs at the expense of their employees. Companies in the retail industry that require their employees to clock-in and out of their shifts often times resort to rounding their worker’s times spent completing their shifts. This often results in employees’ pay being less than what they should be. Recently, the home improvement giant, The Home Depot, came under fire for rounding it’s workers time to calculate their pay. Several lawsuits against the retailer alleged that ...

Amid the growing concerns of a recession, many industries are finding themselves impacted by significant job cuts. Recently, higher-paid, white collar banking and finance employees have been on the receiving end of these financial firm layoff announcements. The financial services industry has recently announced a wave of thousands of job cuts given the slowing economy and warns they may continue to come. This comes after more than 24,000 jobs were cut last year, a whopping 127% increase compared with 10,784 job losses in 2021.

Financial firm layoffs can be seen in the lending and credit sectors as well as the investment banking divisions. Top names in the industry such as Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, ...

Tipped workers for a BBQ chain restaurant based out of Maryland have recently settled claims of owed wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). These tipped workers alleged that Famous Dave’s BBQ, owned and operated by Famous Dave’s of America, Inc., failed to properly pay them for minimum and overtime wages. The nearly $1 million settlement will resolve these claims and affect a class of about 680 current and former tipped workers in server and bartender positions at any of the Famous Dave’s of America, Inc. run ...

An overtime pay misclassification lawsuit against a big-name financial firm has recently resolved claims of owed wages. This firm, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, is globally noted as one of the largest banks and brokerage firms and the investment and wealth management division of Bank of America. The collective action lawsuit against Merrill Lynch was filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and settled claims of unpaid overtime for $3.4 million. Affected employees for these claims include all current ...