The past twelve months have seen an increase in wage and hour class-action lawsuits, perhaps because laid-off or worried employees are quicker to seek legal advice.  Attorneys for employees are particularly focused on a few critical issues that employers sometimes overlook:

Wage and hour litigation is on the rise.  Employers need to respond by auditing their exempt/non-exempt classifications and their rules on what counts as time worked.

• Paying a salary to a non-exempt employee who works over forty hours per week.  Employers should audit who is paid a salary and who is paid by the hour.  The rules are complicated, and proper classifications are often surprising.  Accepting, or even requesting, the benefits of a salary will not prohibit an employee from claiming overtime later.  This area is a fertile ground for class action lawsuits.
• Failing to pay employees for travel time.  Non-exempt employees who travel long distances for work pose issues that vary widely based on the circumstances, as do workers who ride together to job sites.  Employers should pay close attention to any employees who spend time in transportation other than the regular commute to and from home.
• Requiring employees to prepare to work before pay periods begin.  Any activity that is "integral and indispensable" to an employee's "first principal activity" is the trigger for when work time starts.  Obviously, the details of each person's job will matter, which is why these situations have to be analyzed on their own facts.
• Allowing employees to work during unpaid breaks.  In some workplaces a culture of hard work leads employees to help out during unpaid breaks.  Voluntariness does not matter; if an employee is allowed to work, he or she must be paid, even if the employer prefers that the employee be on break.

Wage and hour compliance goes well beyond these four areas, but they represent areas of frequent mistakes that could have expensive consequences.