New York Paralegal Blog

The dedicated individuals who provide crucial home health care – helping our elderly, disabled, and ill loved ones live independently – are once again at the center of a federal policy debate. The current administration, through the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), has proposed a rule that could significantly alter their pay and protections, with potential far-reaching effects. What's On the Table? At the heart of this proposal is a move to roll back a 2013 regulation that extended federal minimum wage and overtime protections to home health and personal care aides employed by third-party agencies. If the new rule is finalized, it would reinstate a broader "companionship services" exemption, essentially meaning many home care agencies would no longer be federally required to pay these workers the federal minimum wage ($7.25/hour) or provide overtime pay. The Trump administration's DOL argues that this change is about deregulation. They contend it will: Redu...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A producer of pork sausage products located in Union City, Tenn., will pay $60,000 and furnish other relief to settle a wage discrimination and racial harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

DES MOINES, Iowa – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a partial summary judgment requiring Hill Country Farms, doing business as Henry’s Turkey Service, and president Kenneth Henry to pay more than $1.76 million in back wages and liquidated damages for violating the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.  The judgment partially resolves a lawsuit filed by the Labor Department following an investigation by the Des Moines District Office of its Wage and Hour Division.  The judgment, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in Davenport, concluded that the defendants willfully violated the FLSA by failing to properly pay 31 workers with disabilities.  Henry’s Turkey Service supplied the workers to the West Liberty Foods turkey processing plant in West Liberty, where most worked on the plant’s processing line “Working on a poultry processing line is a particularly difficult...

National Rail Carrier Retaliated Against Female Human Resources Regional Director Because She Complained About Pay Discrimination, Federal Agency Charges PHILADELPHIA – The nation’s largest rail carrier paid a human resources regional director less money because of her sex and then unlawfully retaliated against her when she complained about the wage discrimination, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it announced today. The EEOC charged that beginning in 2001, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, also known as Amtrak, discriminated against Sheila Davidson in her compensation and work assignments because of her sex. The EEOC said that Amtrak paid Davidson, a human resources manager assigned to the rail carrier’s 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, the same salary as it paid two male human resources regional directors, even though Davidson had more relevant experience and was assigned a far greater workload than her male counterparts....