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A Judge in the Southern District of New York issued a significant opinion this week regarding the duties of a company to preserve evidence in a nationwide FLSA unpaid overtime case.  Judge Cott denied KPMG’s motion for a protective order, requiring KPMG to maintain internal hard drives of thousands of Advisory Associates who worked for KPMG in the past 6 years.  KPMG had argued that the expense and time required was too great.  The Court disagreed, stating that KPMG must ...

A class action was recently filed against Fox Searchlight Pictures on behalf of unpaid interns who worked on the popular movie Black Swan.  The lawsuit alleges that interns worked well over 40 hours per week, while receiving no compensation.  Under the law, generally an unpaid internship is legal if the person is receiving academic credit and the company receives no financial benefit in return.  However, if no academic credit is received, the intern would be entitled to minimum wage and ...

On September 26, 2011, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a landmark decision in a unpaid wages lawsuit against restaurants owned by Smith & Wollensky, a well-known brand of steakhouses.  The Court ruled that Plaintiffs are able to bring a simultaneous Collective Action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and class action pursuant to the New York Labor Law (NYLL) in the same case.  The Court ruled that under Federal Law and New York law, the violations are ...

Generally, the answer is yes.  Common industries where commissioned employees are not paid properly include account executives and mortgage loan officers.

1. Account Executives- these employees are typically paid salary plus commission.  In that regard, account executives are entitled to overtime pay if they work over 40 hours a week.  The reason is simple: Account Executives do not exercise discretion and independent judgment regarding matters of significance.  An Account Executive cannot decide how much to sell the product for, they simply ...