On May 5th, the Department of Labor recently hosted a listening session on how much salary employees must earn to be exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act and if that amount might change. The DOL is holding regional listening sessions and this one was focused on employees and employee advocates from the Southeast. So, yes, the points of view expressed were from the employee side of the ledger. But take heart. There are several employer-focused listening sessions scheduled and you can register for them...

The National Labor Relations Board is suing Starbucks after the coffee chain allegedly took direct and unjust action against three employees involved in unionization efforts. In a press release last Friday, NLRB demanded “injunctive relief for victims of unfair labor practices.” The lawsuit claims Starbucks promptly retaliated against the employees – or as Starbucks calls them, “partners” – by disciplining, suspending and discharging one, “constructively” firing another and putting a third on unpaid leave of absence...

Work used to be something you got paid to do and the place where you did it. That changed almost two years ago to the day. Maybe, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s new standards for measuring covid, we can get back to work—both the verb and the noun. The CDC is shifting from eliminating the virus to a new metric called Community Levels. The idea is to take precautions to protect yourself, employees and others from the virus based on the virus’ presence in your community. This in turn will help you set a viable...

Employers have been warned that the Omicron Covid-19 variant could exacerbate ongoing staffing shortages into the new year, with experts urging firms to continue to communicate with and support their staff. Several rail operators have already been forced to cancel services and issue reduced timetables because of staffing shortages caused by the virus, while on Sunday (2 January) the government asked public sector bodies to create plans preparing for “worst-case scenario” absence rates of 25 per cent...

Working parents are far more susceptible to stress and burnout than their childless counterparts. In fact, full-time working mothers experience 40% more chronic stress than working women with no children, and it was recently reported that 9.8 million working mothers in the U.S. are suffering from burnout. There’s no question that women are disproportionately impacted by the stresses of balancing parenthood and work, but men are also greatly affected. One survey of working dads revealed that 72% feel emotionally...