FLSA & NM Wage Law--What is "Any Week of Seven Days"?

No doubt like similar statutes in other states, the New Mexico Minimum Wage Act (MWA) requires an employer to pay overtime wages for hours worked in excess of forty hours in "any week of seven days."  In 2013, the New Mexico Court of Appeals has concluded that "any week of seven days," which is not defined in the MWA, "means

FLSA--What is Compensable Work??

As labor/employment practitioners know, the Fair Labor Standards Act, governing the payment of minimum wages and overtime, is silent as to the definition of "work."  In the Spring 2011 issue of the ABA Journal of Labor and Employment Law, Richard Alfred and Jessica Schauer argue that recent case law and a Department of Labor (DOL) Administrator's Interpretation has potentially opened the floodgate for claims regarding de minimus but arguably "integral and indispensible" activities, such as checking or sending emails, prior to the start of  the workday.  See  Alfred and Schauer,

Retaliation Claims Up and Robust, Discrimination/Harassment Claims Struggling

In the June 2011 issue of the ABA Journal, David L. Huston Jr. observes a trend of the U.S. Supreme Court being more favorably inclined to employment retaliation claims, than underlying discrimination claims.  Of all discrimination-related charges filed in 2010, retaliation charges were up to 36.3 percent, from 27.1 percent in 2000.  Some recent retaliation highlights: