NBC trotted out a repeat — St. Patrick’s Day — last night. My colleague, Jaclyn West, wrote an excellent piece focusing on work-life balance when the episode originally aired back in March. Jaclyn’s post made me think about potential wage-hour issues that arise when employers demand long work days. It’s no secret that wage-hour litigation is a rapidly growing area and a big-dollar cottage industry for plaintiffs lawyers.
Employers need to be aware of applicable state and federal laws regarding maximum work hours per day, maximum work days per week, mandatory breaks, overtime, and other laws that come into play when things go beyond the traditional Monday-through-Friday 9-5 workday.
An employer that loses a wage-hour case can be subject to penalties and attorneys’ fees on top of the award for unpaid wages. Kudos to new boss Jo and her strong work ethic. But she needs to be wary of the applicable wage-hour laws. This might be one area where she can take a cue from Michael. He never worked anyone into the wee hours of the night . . .
That’s what she said.
[hulu:http://www.hulu.com/embed/WpDassn3NHHlwgtlcZ2a_w]
Don’t Americans have one of the worst work-life balances of any country around the world? Not that I could condone Micheal’s work ethic at all. I don’t know how his branch ever got such good sales numbers.