Wage and hour claims have been on the rise and among the latest claims to be filed is a class action against a strip club outside of Minneapolis alleging the entertainers have been misclassified as independent contractors.

It remains to be seen whether Minnesota will follow the court and labor commission rulings of Alaska, California, Oregon and Texas that consider such dancers to be employees.  Either way, the case underscores the highly state driven nature of employment law. 

Such quirks present challenges for companies doing business in more than one state, and particularly those expanding across state lines who may be inclined to assume that employment laws are the same from state to state.  While there are many similarities, the devil, and of course the legal violations, are in the details.

It pays to adopt best practices designed to avoid employment law problems before they can escalate and impact your bottom line.

Please join me this evening at 8 p.m. Eastern (5 p.m. Pacific) on Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer when I host New York Super Lawyer, and employment law expert, Elise Bloom, to discuss best practices and more.  Click here for more information about this complimentary teleseminar.

Tags: Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer, Elise Bloom, independent contractor, wage and hour

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 11:20 am and is filed under Business Blind Spots, Compliance, Corporate Governance, Costs, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.