Wage & Hour Compliance

Clients rely on Vedder to steer them through complex wage and hour matters across the US. We provide routine compliance advice and defense in high-stakes litigation and effectively help clients navigate federal, state and local requirements.

Wage and hour laws are constantly evolving. Our team monitors developments nationwide, identifying areas where companies are likely to meet compliance challenges and providing guidance to minimize litigation risk and exposure through proactive audits and policy updates and other preemptive measures.

Common areas in which we provide guidance include:

• application of white-collar and other exemptions
• regular rate and overtime pay calculations
• independent contractor issues
• prevention of off-the-clock work
• meal and rest breaks
• predictive scheduling
• payroll and timekeeping policies and audits
• general litigation risk avoidance

Litigation Defense

The number of wage and hour lawsuits filed in federal and state courts across the country has substantially increased over the last decade, with verdicts and settlements routinely costing companies millions of dollars. We understand that the best defense to litigation is proactively analyzing, drafting and revising company policies and procedures to ensure compliance and mitigate risk. But, sometimes, litigation is unavoidable. When wage and hour cases are filed, whether on a single plaintiff or a putative class or collective action basis, our seasoned litigators are well-equipped to successfully defend your company.

All cases involve different business and legal considerations, so there is no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” approach to litigation. We work closely with each client to customize our defense to satisfy their business objectives. This requires creative—and often, novel—litigation strategies to defeat claims or efficiently resolve them to our clients’ satisfaction.

We have successfully defended our clients against the full scope of wage and hour claims, including those concerning the following:

• allegations of off-the-clock work
• missed meal and rest periods
• pay for pre- and post-shift activities
• independent contractor misclassification
• exempt-employee misclassification
• tip credit violations
• improper wage deductions
• improper calculation of regular rate and overtime pay
• timeclock rounding