Today, everybody is buzzing about the new overtime eligibility rule announced by President Obama on Tuesday. According to the New York Times, the Labor Department is expected to issue a new regulation on Wednesday making all workers that earn salaries up to $47,476/year eligible to receive time-and-a-half overpay for hours over the 40/hour workweek. That’s more than double the current threshold ($23,660) and when it goes ito effect on December 1, millions of formerly uncovered salaried employees will begin to receive overtime. Vice President Biden Jr., who is traveling to Ohio on Wednesday to promote the new rules, said this is part of Obama’s plan to ensure that middle-class workers are treated fairly. Republican lawmakers have vowed to block the effort during a mandated congressional review period.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has released its final rules regarding the applicability of both the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) to employer wellness programs, per JDSupra. The final rule revising the regulations clarifies how the programs fit together with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The rule revising ADA regulations lays out the criteria that a wellness program must meet in order to be considered voluntary under the ADA, and thus fall under an exception allowing voluntary medical examinations and inquiries as part of an employee health plan. The rule also allows employers to use “incentives” in the form of rewards or penalties to encourage participation in such programs, but limits such incentives to 30% of the cost of the employer’s and employee’s contributions toward coverage. In addition to this revision, the EEOC further specified that wellness programs “must have a reasonable chance of improving health or preventing disease, not be overly burdensome, not allow for employment discrimination, and not employ a suspect method to meet its health promotion obligations.” Finally, the EEOC tried to clarify when an employer can offer incentives to promote participation in a wellness program without violating GINA since, historically, GINA has been understood to restrict wellness programs from requiring employees to provide genetic information in order to receive an incentive. The revisions make clear that this interpretation does not apply to the spouses of employees. With respect to spouses, employers can request genetic information and the final rule allows for financial or “in-kind” rewards (not to exceed the 30% cap) in exchange for an employee’s spouse providing current or past health status information or undergoing a medical exam.
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September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.
September 9
Ninth Circuit revives Trader Joe’s lawsuit against employee union; new bill aims to make striking workers eligible for benefits; university lecturer who praised Hitler gets another chance at First Amendment claims.
September 8
DC Circuit to rule on deference to NLRB, more vaccine exemption cases, Senate considers ban on forced arbitration for age discrimination claims.
September 7
Another weak jobs report, the Trump Administration's refusal to arbitrate with federal workers, and a district court judge's order on the constitutionality of the Laken-Riley Act.