• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

McCarter & English Logo

  • People
  • Services
  • Insights
  • Our Firm
    • Leadership Team
    • Social Justice
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
    • Pro Bono
    • Client Service Values
    • Alumni
  • Join Us
    • Lawyers
    • Summer Associates
    • Patent Professionals
    • Professional Staff
    • Job Openings
  • Locations
    • Boston
    • Philadelphia
    • East Brunswick
    • Indianapolis
    • Stamford
    • Hartford
    • Trenton
    • Miami
    • Washington, DC
    • New York
    • Wilmington
    • Newark
  • Share

Share

Browse Alphabetically:

  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • E
  • F
  • G
  • H
  • I
  • J
  • K
  • L
  • M
  • N
  • O
  • P
  • Q
  • R
  • S
  • T
  • U
  • V
  • W
  • X
  • Y
  • Z
  • All
Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Litigation
Blockchain, Smart Contracts & Digital Currencies
Business Litigation
Cannabis
Coronavirus Resource Center
Corporate
Crisis Management
Cybersecurity & Data Privacy
Delaware Corporate, LLC & Partnership Law
Design, Fashion & Luxury
E-Discovery & Records Management
Energy & Utilities
Environment & Energy
Financial Institutions
Food & Beverage
Government Affairs
Government Contracts & Global Trade
Government Investigations & White Collar Defense
Healthcare
Hospitality
Immigration
Impact Investing
Insurance Recovery, Litigation & Counseling
Intellectual Property
Labor & Employment
Life Sciences
Manufacturing
Products Liability, Mass Torts & Consumer Class Actions
Public Finance
Real Estate
Renewable Energy
Sports & Entertainment
Tax & Employee Benefits
Technology Transactions
Transportation, Logistics & Supply Chain Management
Trusts, Estates & Private Clients
Venture Capital & Emerging Growth Companies
  • Broadcasts
  • Events
  • News
  • Publications
  • View All Insights
Search By:
Insights News Newspaper Stack
Main image for New U.S. Work and Wage Rules Wednesday
News|Quote

New U.S. Work and Wage Rules Wednesday

The Philadelphia Inquirer

5.17.2016

Christopher Mayer, partner at the Newark, N.J.-based law firm McCarter and English, calls the rules “big news,” part of Obama’s broader plan to use U.S. Labor Department rules and enforcement to increase net pay and wage levels. Companies will have to track workers’ hours more closely to make sure they comply.

Mayer says DoL and the Internal Revenue Service have also stepped up investigations of independent contracting arrangements. “Contractor misclassification” costs state and U.S. treasuries a lot of money, he told me. “If the Department of Labor and the IRS determine that an independent contractor is really an employee, they may become subject to to the Fair Labor Standards Act” and the stricter new overtime rules.

Companies like Comcast, with its thousands of contract workers, could be affected on multiple levels. Not just installers — some layers of Comcast managers at call centers and other teams and groups — may come under the rules, Mayer said.

Information technology consulting firms will have to similarly review and, maybe, reclassify many service people as fulltime employees with overtime rights, Mayer added. That could mean big changes for the fiscal calculation on whether to provide services in-house or through outside companies.

The rule could have its biggest impact on low-wage Southern and Midwestern markets, Mayer added, and among retail, warehouse, hotel and hospitality, branch banking and nonprofit employers who typically pay low wages.

He expects companies will have 60 to 90 days to implement new policies. While the administration’s goal was announced years ago and the rules well in advance, Mayer says he expects many employers still aren’t ready, and there could be a political reaction.

As at Vanguard, some companies may react — instead of boosting net pay, as Obama envisions — by taking steps that threaten to cut workers’ take-home pay. Mayer warned that can be a disruptive course for any company to take, especially as wages are finally starting to rise, seven years after the last recession. Some companies, he concluded, have a lot of training ahead.

sidebar

pdfemail

Related People

Media item: Christopher S. Mayer
Christopher S. Mayer

Partner

Related Services

Labor & Employment
Subscribe to our Insights
McCarter & English, LLP
Copyright © 2023 McCarter & English, LLP. All Rights Reserved.
  • Login
  • Attorney Advertising
  • Privacy
  • Awards Methodology
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Sitemap

The McCarter & English, LLP website is for informational purposes only. We do not provide legal advice on this website. We can provide legal advice only to our clients in specific inquiries that they address to us. If you are interested in becoming a client, please contact us, but do not send any information about your specific legal question. We cannot serve as your lawyers until we establish an attorney-client relationship, which can occur only after we follow procedures within our firm and after we agree to the terms of the representation.

Accept Cancel