Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, EXPERT INSIGHTS—The year ahead 2025: wage and hour considerations, (Jan 24, 2025)
Law Firms Mentioned:Jackson Lewis
Organizations Mentioned:Jackson Lewis, PC
By Justin Barnes and Eric Magnus of Jackson Lewis P.C.
While many anticipate a more business-friendly administration, the appointment of a seemingly pro-labor Republican as Labor Secretary and President Trump's populist instincts could make it hard to predict what the year ahead will bring for wage and hour law.
Start-of-the-Year Status
Minimum salary for EAP exemptions
Vacated.
DOL has filed an appeal.
Independent contractor rule
Several lawsuits pending.
Trump Administration may restore regulations his DOL previously issued.
80-20 regulation for tipped employees
Vacated.
Employees will still seek to impose it, or some version of it, as a valid interpretation of the statutory language permitting a tip credit.
Federal contractors
Minimum wage mandate for federal contractors valid, for now, in most jurisdictions.
Trump executive order likely imminent.
What to Watch
Congressional weigh-in on Trump's campaign promises:
No tax on tips or overtime?
Comp time for private employees?
Overtime determined based on an 80-hour cycle?
Labor Secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer: The degree to which she will be a wild card.
Will DOL shift focus from enforcement actions to education and job creation?
Wage and hour collective actions: Procedural shifting sands.
Erosion of "conditional" certification.
Bristol-Myers reins in nationwide collectives.
Enforcement + litigation: The extent to which the locus shifts to the states.
The Year Ahead 2025: Back to the Future for Core Wage and Hour Concerns
Hosts: Justin R. Barnes, Principal and Wage and Hour Co-Leader, and Eric R. Magnus, Principal and Class Actions and Complex Litigation Co-Leader.
"A corollary to the populist instincts of president-to-be Trump [i.e., his possible support for some increase to the federal minimum wage] is this issue about removing taxes on tips. This is something that could certainly happen in 2025—and it would be the most important effect on the wage and hour practice in the entire time I have been practicing in this area."
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Justin Barnes and Eric Magnus
Jackson Lewis P.C.
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New York
NY 10017
United States
Tel.: +1 212 545 4000
E-mail: myupdates@jacksonlewis.com
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Attorneys: (Jackson Lewis).
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