New York Labor and Employment Law Report
Wage & Hour Defense Institute Publishes State-By-State Survey
July 29, 2011
The Wage & Hour Defense Institute (WHDI) of the Litigation Counsel of America is an invitation only group comprised of highly talented and experienced wage and hour defense attorneys from across the United States. To further its goal of being a resource for employers, the WHDI annually updates its State-By-State Wage and Hour Law Summary. The Summary is an excellent reference tool for employers with employees in multiple states. The Summary addresses multiple topics on a state-by-state basis, including whether each state: (1) follows the federal exemptions; (2) uses special overtime rules; (3) has a higher minimum wage rate; (4) accepts the fluctuating work week method for calculating overtime; and (5) has meal and/or rest period rules. A copy of the Summary is available here.
The WHDI serves as a nationwide network and meeting ground for top-tier practitioners to engage in professional development in what has become a highly nuanced area of the law, and to become an established resource for employers on wage and hour matters. Each attorney was selected for membership in the WHDI based on his or her individual skills and experience representing management in the defense of wage and hour litigation. WHDI members also actively counsel employers on classification determinations and payroll practices to proactively avoid litigation, using tools such as “audits” to examine an employees’ classification as exempt or non-exempt or whether certain activities are compensable or non-compensable and whether overtime has been properly calculated. The Institute holds periodic conferences, meetings and colloquia for purposes of advancing defense techniques, methods and approaches, and broadening its members’ role and influence in wage and hour law and policy.