Protecting Employers Since 1985

Buckle Up Employers – the DOL Has Appealed the Texas Court’s Injunction That Blocked Its Controversial Overtime Regulations from Going into Effect as Planned, Making the Road Ahead Full of Uncertainty for Payroll Specialists and Employers

By James B. Sherman / December 2, 2016

When a federal court in Sherman, Texas issued a nation-wide injunction on November 22nd that blocked the Department of Labor’s new overtime regulation, thousands of employers across the country breathed a sigh of relief. The DOL’s new rule was to have gone into effect on December 1st and would have more than doubled the minimum…

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Independent Contractor Protection Laws

By Nancy E. Joerg / November 29, 2016

NEW LAWS SPRINGING UP: With the change in our national economy and workforce tilting more and more towards “self-employment” and independent contractor status, new laws are springing up, both state and federal, to respond. Some of these new laws intend to punish companies who “misclassify” employees by (incorrectly) calling them independent contractors. NEW YORK LAW…

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Shift Away From Private Sector Unions to Public Sector Unions

By Richard H. Wessels / November 28, 2016

(Second part of the series on the State of Labor Unions in America) Few graphs can be more dramatic than the two showing membership trends of private and public sector unions. Look at what is happening. These graphs go back to the early 1980s. If you look further back you will see that private sector…

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The Marijuana Plant Keeps Growing!

By Walter J. Liszka / November 23, 2016

In two (2) Wessels Sherman Client Alerts (August, 2015 and December, 2015) I wrote articles about the expansion of Medical Marijuana usage and its authorization in then twenty-three (23) States (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode…

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Employers Receive an 11th Hour Reprieve on DOL Minimum Salary Rule – Federal Judge Blocks Overtime Rule From Going Into Effect as Planned, On December 1st.

By Jennifer Adams Murphy / November 23, 2016

A federal judge in Sherman, Texas has issued a preliminary injunction which operates nation-wide to bar the Department of Labor’s minimum salary rule for certain white collar exemptions from going into effect. Employers have been bracing for drastic changes to their pay practices and exempt/non-exempt job classifications due to a DOL regulation finalized this summer…

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Five Key Questions Regarding IDES Follow-Up Audits

By Nancy E. Joerg / November 18, 2016

I am getting an increasing number of phone calls from very nervous people who have heard that the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) is now auditing Illinois companies based solely on the fact that the company had a prior IDES audit involving alleged “misclassification of independent contractors” (“follow-up audits”). In the past, the IDES…

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Wessels Sherman is Pleased to Announce that Allison Wells has Joined our Firm as an Associate Attorney in our Minneapolis, MN Office.

By James B. Sherman / November 17, 2016

Allison Wells comes to Wessels Sherman from a highly regarded Twin Cities immigration law firm, where she focused her practice on representing employers in all aspects of employment-based immigration matters. Her extensive experience includes helping employers throughout much of the country with a broad spectrum of workplace immigration needs, including: EB-1 multinational managers, PERM Labor…

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SAVE THE DATE: Friday, April 28th, 2017!!!

By James B. Sherman / November 17, 2016

Each year, Wessels Sherman hosts a full-day seminar where attorneys from our offices in Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN; Milwaukee, WI; and Davenport, IA, come together in one of our locations, to present on many of the most important workplace issues faced by employers around the country. In 2017, the location will be here, in Minneapolis.…

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Penn State Sandusky Saga Continues to Provide Painful Lessons for Employers on What Not to Do In Response to Workplace Scandals Such as Employees Engaging in Sexual Misconduct, Harassment, etc.

By James B. Sherman / November 17, 2016

Already, Penn State University has paid a heavy price (millions of dollars and lost football scholarships, not to mention damage to its reputation) for allegedly sweeping under the rug scandalous conduct of convicted sex offender and former assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky. However, while Penn State’s football team appears to have weathered the storm, the…

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Barring a Miracle Court Injunction Next Week, the New D.O.L. Regulations on Exemptions from Overtime Pay Go Into Effect in Just Two Weeks – Thursday, December 1, 2016!

By James B. Sherman / November 17, 2016

As of December 1st most employees whose annualized salaries are less than $47,476, will be entitled to overtime pay even though their job duties would otherwise qualify for an exemption as executive, administrative or professional. A federal court in Texas is expected to rule next Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by employer groups seeking to…

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