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Employers constantly try to avoid paying employment taxes, overtime, and benefits to workers by calling them independent contractors.

Preparing a will is a smart, compassionate, financially-wise, and easy thing to do. So, stop making excuses, and do it! Anyone who has been through settling an estate for a loved one who failed to make a will can attest to how much they would have preferred the alternative.

The Supreme Court reasoned there is a distinction between these activities. That is, if employees must don or doff certain clothing or gear to perform their essential job functions adequately or safely, then the time spent doing that is compensable because it is integral to the principal job functions.

Employers frequently will use a Severance Agreement and Release when terminating an employee as a means to head off possible post-termination legal claims. Such agreements always have been subject to stringent requirements to be valid and enforceable.

The head of the U.S. Department of Labor FMLA Branch has announced DOL will focus on conducting more on-site compliance investigations to: (1) increase investigators’ access to information; and (2) save time by reviewing the employer’s documents and interviewing employees on-site.

Limiting potential personal liability of investors or owners is often the biggest consideration favoring incorporation or LLC formation. These two entities limit the exposure to liability of investors or owners for business debts or liabilities to the amount invested and protect other personal assets of the investors from those debts.

The old adage often applies: don’t try to be a penny smart by not paying for minor amounts of time and end up a pound poor when the back wages, doubling for penalties under the FLSA, and possibly attorney’s fees are all added in. True, the really big dollar awards or settlements are against major employers, but the result can be just as devastating to a small business.

The U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) continues to step up its audits and investigations, both DOL-initiated and employee-complaint-triggered. This coming year may see records numbers of audits.

Physician non-compete agreements are a whole different animal. A medical or physician non-compete adds many additional requirements over those for general employee non-competes in Texas. The requirements are very specific. Employers must include a buy-out provision in a physician non-compete, even if negotiating the terms is contentious.

Overtime pay and minimum wage rules will become the rule rather than the exception for home health care workers in the future. The Department of Labor (DOL) recently published its “final rule”, which would do away with the exemption from minimum wage and overtime pay for home health care employees in all but a very narrow range of pure “companionship” services.