Don’t look to the Department of Labor (DOL) for help navigating the waters of wage-and-hour compliance any longer.
At least not in the form of detailed opinion letters that many firms have come to rely on.
The agency’s Wage and Hour division recently announced that it will stop sending out wage-and-hour fact-specific opinion letters under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
For many employers, these opinion letters — which include detailed analysis of various wage-and-hour issues — are an invaluable resource when it comes to complying with the FLSA.
If employers continue to request opinion letters, they will instead get references to statutes, regulations, interpretations and relevant cases – without all of the expert analysis.
The timing here is particularly troubling for employers, as the number of wage-and-hour lawsuits has been on the rise.
This move closely follows a major DOL campaign to educate employees about their rights under the FLSA called “We Can Help.”