Compliance Stuff

In  Sonderling v. Ikes Artisan Pizza LLC , the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is pursuing a legal theory that, if adopted by the court, would allow the DOL to seek punitive damages in Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) retaliation lawsuits. 0:00 5:41 Quick Hits In  Sonderling v. Ikes Artisan Pizza LLC , the DOL argued that the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provision grants courts broad authority to award punitive damages against employers. The case implicates an unresolved circuit split and could significantly increase financial exposure under the FLSA retaliation. Background The  Ikes Artisan Pizza  case centers on a c omplaint filed by the DOL in 2022 alleging that the employer retaliated against an employee for communicating with the Kentucky Labor Cabinet regarding her wages. In 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky denied the employer’s motion for summary judgment, which set the case on the path to trial. T his also put a novel issue—whethe...

  On January 5, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued   Opinion Letter FLSA2026-2 , addressing whether certain “Safety, Job Duties, and Performance” bonuses may be excluded from an employee’s regular rate of pay when calculating an employee’s overtime premium under Section 7(e) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The short answer: they cannot, at least under the circumstances analyzed in the opinion letter. The opinion letter involves a pay plan for waste-management drivers that included a base hourly rate plus incentive bonuses tied to safety, job performance, and completion of duties. These bonuses were formula-driven and could add up to $9.50 per hour when specific criteria were met. Once those criteria were satisfied, the amount of the bonus was quantifiable under the plan and automatically earned by the employee.  The DOL confirms in this opinion letter that Section 7(e)(3) of the FLSA allows exclusion only of truly discretionary bonu...