[Go here for yesterday’s survey results]
What is the amount of annual litigation expense (by company size) in the US?
The trend of increased litigation expenditure has resumed. Last year marked the first drop in the percentage of companies spending $1000000 or more on litigation since 2007. This year, the increase resumed with just over half of the total sample spending at least $1 million annually on litigation.
In the chart below, company size (gross annual revenue) is along the bottom and the color of the bars represents amount spent. Height of the bar indicates the percentages of respondents.
What are the top litigation areas targeted for increased spending?
Electronic discovery topped the list of litigation areas targeted for increased spending.
Have you encountered data/privacy protection issues?
Twenty-five percent of respondents have encountered privacy/data protection issues in the past 12 months, down from 43% in last year’s survey.
Does your company block internal network users from accessing any of the following social media sites?
Finally, a simple but comprehensive guide to wage and hour. Correctly apply the FLSA, remain the go-to expert with BLR’s comprehensive guide. Save hours of research time. Go here for information or to order Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR
Does you company allow employees to use mobile hand-held devices (including Blackberrys, Smartphones, PDAs and Tablets) to conduct company business?
Ninety-one percent of US companies said Yes.
Has your company had to preserve and/or collect data from an employee mobile device for a litigation or investigation?
Thirty-two percent of all respondents said Yes.
Demographics
Nearly 405 organizations participated in the survey. Of those, 275 were headquartered in the US and 129 were headquartered in the UK. About half of reporting organizations have gross revenues of $1B or more. Geographically, US respondents were spread across the country, although there is a heavy concentration in Texas. Respondents represented a wide cross section of industries.
The survey says that wage/hour is at the top of the litigation hit parade again. Wage/hour should be simple, but it’s not. Complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is one of the most confusing and challenging things comp managers have to do.
Even the most savvy practitioners get tripped up, and the law’s complex requirements can easily land you and your company on the wrong side of a lawsuit or DOL investigation.
Fortunately, there’s help—Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR provides you with detailed guidance on how to comply with the FLSA and takes you through the most complicated wage & hour issues that HR practitioners encounter.
When you’re faced with a supervisor’s travel time question, an employee’s request for comp time, another executive’s suggestion that more assistant managers be deemed exempt from overtime, you’ll find answers in seconds, from a reputable and reliable source.
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Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR features:
- Real-world examples of wage & hour challenges, and how to solve them
- Multiple quizzes, so you can see where you need to review more carefully
- An overtime exemption audit checklist, so you never make the wrong call
- State-specific charts, for comparing your multi-state obligations
- Sample policies, easily modified to fit your specific preferences
- A quarterly newsletter, Wage & Hour Compliance Bulletin, to keep you aware of the latest developments in the law, and why they matter to you.
BONUS! Not just a manual. You also get:
- Free CD-ROM containing over 20 forms, policies, checklists, state-by-state comparison charts and more, all so you can point, click and go.
Why are aggressive attorneys so eager to file claims on behalf of employees? Because there’s so much money to be made:
- $4.75 million: Hospital in Thousand Oaks, California settles wage and hour lawsuit over miscalculated overtime pay and failing to compensate workers for missed meal and rest periods.
- $1.15 million: Las Vegas construction company to pay in back wages to 1,060 current and former employees.
- $976,327: New Mexico aerospace company settles with 900 employees who were routinely required to work through lunch breaks without compensation.
- $340,400: New Jersey convenience store to pay back wages and damages for violations of overtime and recordkeeping.
- $84,541: New York physical therapist agrees to pay 22 employees for minimum wage violations
- $30,000: Texas chain of four gas stations to pay their six hourly employees, again for recordkeeping and overtime violations.
Avoid steep fines. Go here for information or to order Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR.
Buyers’ Benefit: To make sure your Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR remains current with changing interpretations and court decisions, we monitor courts, Congress, and state legislatures. Each year, we’ll rush you an updated edition and bill on a 30-day review basis. You pay only if you decide to keep the updated edition.
Stay up to date with wage/hour changes. Go here for information or to order Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR.